London Irish turned on the style at Twickenham as the Exiles romped to a 33-16 victory over Saracens on the opening weekend of the Premiership on Saturday.
They killed off Sacarens with 15 points in the second half as tries for Delon Armitage and Sailosi Tagicakibau helped take full advantage of the sin-binning of Alex Goode.
Ryan Lamb, who had kicked two penalties in the first half, landed another five points to give Irish a 21-10 lead with 15 minutes to go.
Goode was a key performer during Saracens' march to the Premiership final last season, but his conversion to fly-half here was a failure.
Apart from the yellow card that proved such a turning point, he also made a series of other errors that stopped his side establishing any momentum.
Tries from Ernst Joubert and Schalk Brits saw Saracens control the first half, which they finished 10-6 up, but Irish's play after the interval was clinical.
A penalty try that earned substitute Kevin Barrett a yellow card and a late touch down from Topsy Ojo completed the rout in the final 10 minutes.
Mark Van Gisbergen and New Zealand's Nick Evans were the stars with seven kicks apiece in a 29-29 draw between Wasps and Harlequins.
It was Wasps full-back Van Gisbergen who kept his nerve when presented with a kick to save the game four minutes from time.
Andy Powell, on his debut, and Tom Varndell had crossed for first-half tries for Wasps, while Quins' tries came through Nick Easter and Mike Brown.
Harlequins were first out of the blocks in front of a 75,000 crowd when former New Zealand fly-half Evans eluded a challenge by Simon Shaw and armed support-runner Easter for the game's opening try after only two minutes. Evans converted.
Promoted Exeter produced a stunning performance to start the season with a 22-10 victory over Gloucester.
Fly-half Gareth Steenson was the hero with a match tally of 17 points, landing all his kicks, while Nicky Robinson missed every kicking attempt for the visitors.
Mark Foster claimed a try for the hosts, while Tim Taylor and James Simpson-Daniel crossed for Gloucester.
Copyright 2010 AFP European Edition
