Kingston Park’s first full house in more than seven years saw Newcastle Red Bulls offer plenty of fight, but they started the Gallagher PREM season in defeat thanks to a second-half surge from Saracens.

The home side trailed 15-10 at the break but flew out of the blocks and led inside two minutes – Alex Hearle surging down the right from 25 metres out after a patient period of phase play.

Brett Connon converted, and the visitors were down to 14 men for a quarter of the game when Nathan Michelow was shown the first ever 20-minute red card in the Gallagher PREM for a tip tackle on George McGuigan.

Owen Farrell got the visitors off the mark almost straight from the restart when he slotted a penalty from out on the right, but the Red Bulls were full of zip and kept up the pressure with Hearle chipping and chasing down the right.

Connon’s eager ruck work earned his side a midfield jackal penalty, and the fly-half had Sarries retreating once more with a well-judged grubber into their 22.

Roared on by a capacity crowd of 10,210, Newcastle found themselves down by one on 19 minutes when quick hands along the line saw winger Brandon Jackson scoring an unconverted try in the right corner.

But they were not behind for long, the Londoners straying offside at a ruck and Connon punishing them with a 30-metre penalty from out in front.

Saracens hit back just after the half-hour when a break down the right was worked infield, and from the resulting close-range ruck Andy Onyeama-Christie picked and went through the middle for a converted try.

That left them 15-10 up at the interval, Newcastle missing an opportunity to chip three points off that margin when Chamberlain’s long-range penalty flew just wide of the South Stand posts five minutes after the resumption.

Farell had no such problems from closer in as he extended Saracens’ lead to eight point with a straightforward penalty, and two quickfire tries around the hour mark wrapped up the result.

First, Nick Tompkins was quickest to a loose ball from a close-range line-out to wriggle over, and he was quickly followed by replacement wing Noah Caluori who was the beneficiary of a cruel bounce of the ball as the Londoners wrapped up their bonus point.

Newcastle were in no mood to roll over, though, and ploughed over a well-deserved second try when debutant Freddie Clarke powered through a tackle to score after a maul in the right corner was worked infield.

Connon converted, but Saracens quickly killed off any sense of a comeback when Tompkins regathered the ball for his second try of the evening.

Newcastle Red Bulls: 15 Boeta Chamberlain, 14 Oli Spencer, 13 Sammy Arnold(Jack Dickens, 79), 12 Max Clark, 11 Alex Hearle, 10 Brett Connon, 9 James Elliott; 1 Murray McCallum (Adam Brocklebank, 43), 2 George McGuigan (captain, Ollie Fletcher, 61), 3 Luan de Bruin (Richard Palframan, 43), 4 Oscar Usher (Freddie Clarke, 43), 5 Jamie Hodgson, 6 Cameron Neild (Fergus Lee-Warner, 54), 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Amanaki Mafi (Freddie Lockwood, 54).

Scorers – Tries: Alex Hearle, Freddie Clarke. Conversions: Brett Connon 2. Penalties: Brett Connon.

Saracens: 15 Max Malins, 14 Brandon Jackson (Noah Caluori, 48), 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Owen Farrell (Cameron Hutchison, 62), 11 Rotimi Segun, 10 Fergus Burke, 9 Ivan van Zyl (captain); 1 Rhys Carre (Eroni Mawi, 57), 2 Theo Dan, 3 Marco Riccioni (Alec Clarey, 64), 4 Nick Isiekwe, 5 Hugh Tizard, 6 Nathan Michelow, 7 Andy Onyeama-Christie, 8 Tom Willis.

Scorers – Tries: Brandon Jackson, Andy Onyeama-Christie, Nick Tompkins 2, Noah Caluori. Conversions: Owen Farrell 3, Fergus Burke. Penalties: Owen Farrell 2.

Referee: Adam Leal. Attendance: 10,210.