Saracens’ final pre-season tune up before the defence of their Gallagher Premiership crown gets underway went right to plan on Thursday night.

Mark McCall’s side had too much for a strong Ospreys outfit that included British & Irish Lions like George North and Justin Tipuric.

The men in black emerged 31-14 victors thanks to tries from Alex Lozowski, Richard Barrington, Will Skelton and Christopher Tolofua.

And England international Lozowski insists all is looking rosy ahead of their regular season opener against Newcastle Falcons next weekend.

“It was a really good test for us, Ospreys brought down a really good team so it was nice run out for us and exactly what we needed before next week,” he said.

“There were a lot of positives to take from it.

“The boys have worked really hard, building on what we did last year and trying to get better, the way we have trained so we are really looking forward to getting stuck in next week.”

Max Malins has caught the eye as Owen Farrell has gradually returned to the fold following a busy summer captaining England in South Africa and getting married.

Malins has worn the No.10 jersey in two pre-season outings and loved every minute of the experience.

“I am really enjoying it, it’s a new role for me, leading the team at No.10. It’s a big role for me and I have enjoyed stepping up to it in pre-season,” he said. 

“The team feel very good, we took things to learn from at Bedford, we weren’t quite clinical enough and today was tough so we will take all of that into Newcastle.

“We stood up to the physical test and proved our worth.” 

And flanker Ben Earl, who also went to South Africa this summer with England, insists their pre-season toil will bear fruit down the line.

“The work we have done over the summer, especially the early parts of pre-season, it shows in days like this and hopefully it bodes well for the season,” he said.