Saracens' 60-0 victory away at Ealing in the first leg of the Championship play offs effectively means that, as expected, they will return to the Premiership next season at the first time of asking.

Many will welcome their return although many more, I suspect, will continue to lambaste Sarries for their breaking of the salary cap rules which saw them relegated at the end of last season. What such critics fail to grasp, however, is the unlikelihood that Saracens were/are the only transgressors - they were just not very good at hiding their activities.

In any event, the Premiership will be better for the presence of Mark McCall and his team, of that there is little doubt.

As for Ealing, a 0-60 defeat does put something of a dent in their mid term Premiership ambitions and suggests, perhaps, that for all their progress in recent years they are perhaps not quite ready for the step up just yet. That said, it would be interesting to see how they would fare against Worcester, the Premiership's bottom club.