THE wheels on Saracens' mini-revivial came off in spectacular fashion on Sunday as they conceded 30 second-half points, including two injury-time tries, to crash to a depressing 30-12 defeat at home to London Irish.

Three first-half penalties from Glen Jackson appeared to have put the Men in Black in command at the break and on course for a fourth straight Premiership win, but they pressed the self-destruct button in the second half as Irish helped themselves to their first bonus-point victory in nearly 18 months.

While the five points went a long way to soothing Irish's relegation fears, the defeat leaves Sarries sitting in no-mans land in mid-table and kicking themselves at missing a golden opportunity to hoist themselves up to the heady heights of fourth.

Fielding an unchanged side for the third successive match, Sarries started in assured fashion and established a nine-point lead at the break thanks to three penalties from the increasingly reliable boot of Jackson.

Irish, though, dominated possession, particularly in the last 20 minutes of the half and only resolute defence prevented the visitors from driving over in either corner before the break. Sarries created half chances of their own, but Jackson's pass to Tevita Vaikona failed to match his gorgeous break while captain Hugh Vyvyan agonisingly failed to cling on to an over-head pass from Vaikona with the try line in sight.

Steve Diamond made two changes just after half-time, bringing on Raphael Ibanez and Simon Raiwalui, and the move appeared to affect Sarries defensive alignment as Irish scored twice in the space of six minutes. Centre Rod Penney powered over for the first and then a break from Roland Reid led to Scott Staniforth squeezing over in the corner.

In between times, Jackson knocked over his fourth penalty of the match but once Barry Everitt, on as replacement for Mark Mapletoft, kicked Irish in front for the first time on 70 minutes there only looked like being one winner.

The Irish points machine added another from long range on 80 minutes and then, as Sarries frantically chased the game, Ryan Strudwick intercepted a predictable pass from Jackson to score under the posts before Kieron Dawson rounded off a sweeping move to score Irish's fourth in the eighth minute of injury-time.

For a more comprehensive report, don't miss Friday's edition of the Watford Observer.