London Irish ... 32 Saracens ... 10The drive from Reading to Watford is not far, but it would have been long enough last night for the Saracens head coach Wayne Shelford to reflect on a couple of old sayings - "don't change a winning formula", and "avoid change for change's sake".

The former All-Black made 10 changes to his side, and his team slumped to a defeat in which the margin could have hit 40 points at the Madejski Stadium yesterday.

Irish director of rugby Conor O'Shea said: "We looked at the first two games, they'd lost one lineout, so we targetted their catchers, and cut off the water."

The match turned on a turnover in first-half injury-time. Irish had gone ahead in the 23rd minute, when Barry Everitt followed his 19th-minute penalty with a try which he converted to give Irish the lead by 10 points to Nicky Little's early penalty.

With four minutes of time added on, Saracens drove upfield, but lost possession in the Irish 22. The ball was delivered to Paul Sackey, who kicked over Kevin Sorrell, gathered the ball, and scored.

The Exiles' captain Ryan Strudwick put the match beyond the visitors 10 minutes after the break, while Kieron Dawson ran half the length of the pitch with his opposite number Richard Hill in hot pursuit to secure the bonus point in injury time.

LONDON IRISH: Horak; Sackey, Bishop, Appleford, Rossouw; Everitt (Mapletoft, 80), Edwards (Barret, 73); Hatley (Worsley, 47), Kirke (Flavin, 77), Hardwick (Durant, 61), Strudwick (capt), Casey (Burke, 80), Danaher, Dawson, Sheasby (Gustard, 61). Tries: Everitt, Sackey, Strudwick, Dawson. Cons: Everitt 3. Pens: Everitt 2. Sin-bin: Horak, 77.

SARACENS: Winnan (Castaignede, 65); Haughton (Goode, 52), Sorrell, Johnston, Shanklin; Little, Bracken (capt); Ross, Cairns, Masters, Benazzi (Croall, 61), Roche (Yandell, 53), Chesney, Hill, Russell. Tries: Sorrell. Con: Goode. Pen: Little.

Referee: C White (London).