Eddie Jones named an almost entirely new squad for the opening day of the competition, with no fewer than six players making their debuts for the men in black.

The game began amid wet and windy conditions that made holding onto the ball a real problem for both sides. The wind made the kickers jobs that bit harder and both fly-halves sent their early penalty attempts wide of the posts.

Llanelli were first onto the scoreboard in the opening period of the game - a chip through from their outside centre was gathered by Saracens captain Moses Rauluni, but the ball went dead giving the visitors a five metre attacking scrum.

With so many changes to the squad, Saracens' dominant scrum was not the same force and the Llanelli pack barged them over the line for No 8 David Lyons to touch down. Welsh international Stephen Jones scored the easy conversion.

Saracen's young squad swiftly replied with a try of their own. After winning the restart a gaping hole was made in midfield for Francisco Leonelli to race through, Gordon Ross added the conversion.

Another quickly followed - wing Noah Cato made sure of his second attempt at a try by dashing through a gap in midfield and powering through a defending tackle to get over the line. Ross scored the conversion to make the score 14-7.

Too many Sarries mistakes in the latter part of the first half led to Stephen Jones punishing each penalty with an extra three points, making the half time score 14-16.

Minutes into the second half Gordon Ross retook the lead for Sarries with a penalty from his own half, only to see Llanelli score another try.

A knock-on in defence led to another attacking scrum, and after going through the phases Kees Meuws barged over under the posts, Jones adding the two points.

Jones scored a further penalty when fullback Dan Scarborough was yellow carded for tripping a player to make the score 26-17.

Llanelli lost their own player to the bin minutes later after snuffing out a promising Saracens attack and with both teams down to 14 men, neither side could find a significant advantage in the dying minutes of the game.

Saracens' young team showed character and intent, but skill levels let them down on too many occasions.

Sarries face Stade Montois at Vicarage Road on Sunday, and it will be interesting to see how many of these young players Jones keeps in his match day 22.