It was not quite a case of ‘Owen who?’ but life after Farrell began as smoothly as Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall could have hoped with a bonus-point win away to Gloucester.

There was a brief moment in his illustrious career when Jonathan Davies, the former Wales and Lions centre, appeared to be more widely known as the player who was not Brian O’Driscoll.

Saracens silenced some of their critics with an impressive 35-26 win over Gloucester at Kingsholm. The six-time Premiership champions had largely been written off ahead of the start of the season, following the departures of Owen Farrell and Billy and Mako Vunipola,

Winger Rotimi Segun opened the scoring for Saracens with a well-taken try Gallagher Premiership Gloucester (7) 26 Tries: Thomas, Clarke, Clement, Clarke Cons: Barton (3) Saracens (17) 35 Tries: Segun,