Scotland wing Sean Maitland was in the tries as he made a successful, if brief, return to domestic duty, notching two for Saracens in their Gallagher Premiership Rugby triumph over Northampton Saints.
The 30-year-old had started both of Scotland’s last two Guinness Six Nations matches against France and Ireland but returned to London to face off for Saracens before Scotland host Wales in Rugby’s Greatest Championship next weekend.
Maitland – who has four tries in his 16 Guinness Six Nations appearances – opened the scoring for the hosts at Allianz Park as he crossed in the corner, before being set up by Brad Barritt for his second as Saracens ran out 36-17 winners.
Elsewhere in England, while Jack Nowell did not feature in Exeter Chiefs’ 20-14 win over Sale Sharks as he continues to train with the England set-up, the speedster was keen to remind his teammates that they can afford to enjoy themselves out there on the pitch as they look to bounce back after defeat to Wales last time out.
Eddie Jones’ men are currently training in Oxford ahead of their crunch Round Five clash against Italy next weekend, and Nowell insists that the side are desperate to bounce back when the Azzurri come to Twickenham.
“Obviously we are very disappointed with the result, but we snapped out of that quite quickly,” he told The Times.
“We’ve got two more games, which has kind of made it simple for us to focus on that because we need to win both of them to have a chance of still winning.
“I think this week has been very good for us, it was kind of what we needed.
“We’ve told ourselves to try to get back to enjoying ourselves when we are out there — not that we weren’t but we want smiles on faces on and off the field.
“We don’t know what Italy are going to bring but we are at Twickenham again, it’s another Test and one that we need to be on top of.”
Over in the Guinness PRO14, several returning stars made the difference for their club sides as they look to keep up their momentum.
Connacht made the most of their Irish internationals, with centre Tom Farrell touching down for a fine opening score as they beat Ospreys 46-5 at The Sportsground.
He crossed after a break from inside their own half following a series of swift offloads to release him under the posts.
Ultan Dillane and Quinn Roux – Joe Schmidt’s starting locks as Ireland beat Italy 26-16 in Round Three of the 2019 Championship – were in the engine room for Connacht as they were dominant up front with two of their scores coming from powerful drives from the pack.
Caolin Blade also got some minutes under his belt as he came on in the closing stages, replacing double try-scorer Kieran Marmion – who is on his way back after ankle surgery, and looking to get back in the Ireland squad when they host France to add to his three caps in last year’s Championship.
Over in Parma, Adam Hastings grabbed 12 points from the tee as Glasgow Warriors beat Zebre 42-10 as he stakes a claim for Scotland’s face-off against Wales at BT Murrayfield.
