Saracens full-back Will Hooley hailed the impact of the returning Jamie George after the England hooker made a try-scoring return to domestic duty on Sunday.

George crashed over just before the half-hour mark at Richmond to put the visitors in front for the first time against a determined home side.

It was a lead Sarries extended either side of the interval, running in five tries in total to seal a 32-3 victory which lifted Mark McCall’s side to fourth in the Championship.

George was the first of the club’s England contingent to feature this season and Hooley – who also made his first start of the campaign on Saturday – is delighted to have him back.

“It’s massive for us,” he said. “Jamie has flicked the switch and come straight back in, so a massive pat on the back to him.

“It’s pretty tough coming from the Six Nations to the RAG (Richmond Athletic Ground) but his energy throughout the week and today was massive and really drove the lads on.

“We’ll need that from all the lads coming back in, everybody has got to buy in to get this job done.”

Richmond started on top against their illustrious visitors from across the capital and scored the first points of the afternoon when Ted Landray slotted a penalty.

Manu Vunipola responded in kind to get Saracens on the board before seeing his conversion attempt hit the bar when George got the ball down following a rolling maul.

Callum Hunter-Hill gave his side breathing space with a try before the interval and Rotimi Segun, Andy Christie and Ralph Adams-Hale added their names to the scoresheet in the second half as McCall’s men earned their second successive victory.

Hooley was impressed by the way his side grew into the game following another tough challenge which again demonstrated how they will not have things all their own way in the second tier.

“Credit to Richmond,” he said. “In the opening 10 or 15 minutes, they really showed their ability to keep hold of the ball and we had to be patient.

“As a team, we are learning that about the Championship. Teams are willing to keep hold of the ball for long periods of time and we have to make sure we are at the races. If we’re not, we’ll get punished.

“There were plenty of good aspects of today – and at other times, we were annoyed.

“We played some really good stuff in the last 15 or 20 minutes, we were really going at them, and we have to take that forward.

“Every week brings a different challenge and this is a challenge we got through, so we’ll take the positives.

“There’s a week’s rest now so we’ll review this game, come back strongly and head into another challenge against Bedford in two weeks’ time.”