IT was the Men In Black against the boys in white as Warriors suffered a chastening 47-17 defeat to Saracens at Allianz Park.

With the tantalising prize of securing a home draw for the Aviva Premiership semi-finals on offer, the hosts came flying out of the blocks and cut Worcester to ribbons at will.

On-fire former England winger David Strettle was the chief beneficiary, running in a 22-minute hat-trick as Saracens threatened to blow their opponents out of the water.

However, Richard Hill’s men somehow managed to steady the ship and keep a talented back-line that included the likes of Chris Ashton, Brad Barritt, Joel Tomkins and Strettle out for the rest of the half.

The visitors even managed to fashion a score of their own as centre Alex Grove carried the ball into the heart of the Sarries defence before springing jet-heeled Josh Drauniniu around the outside to the try line.

Fly-half Danny Gray, starting the game in place of the injured Andy Goode, added the conversion to add to his earlier penalty to give Worcester a glimmer of hope going into the interval.

Warriors had started the game brightly with Josh Matavesi breaking into the Saracens 22 to win a penalty that Gray dispatched.

Former England stand-off Charlie Hodgson soon pegged the scores back, before Strettle came to the fore with a blistering display of finishing to touch down three times in quick succession.

Mid-way through the first-half, there was also an angry confrontation on the touch-line as Saracens boss Mark McCall marched out to remonstrate with the touch-judge and then Richard Hill over a high and late Matavesi tackle that went unseen by the officials, but led to scrum-half Neil de Kock visiting the concussion bin for checks.

After Hodgson missed an early second-half penalty, Warriors threatened to make a game of it when Matt Kvesic scored and Gray converted to bring Worcester to within seven points at 23-17.

The try featured a superb break by David Lemi and a sublime pick up and pass from Drauniniu, before Kvesic was on hand to finish off a driving line-out.

It proved, however, to be a false dawn as Saracens soon wrapped up their four-try bonus point when replacement prop Carlos Nieto went over, while further tries followed from Ashton and Jackson Wray.

There were no signs of the poor form that dogged Ashton’s England Six Nations campaign as he was lively throughout, while Wray put the seal on the hosts’ play-off party with a try from the final play of the game.