Owen Farrell expertly steered Saracens into the Premiership play-offs - and all but condemned Exeter to missing out.
In only his ninth game of the season - and fourth since two ankle injuries sidelined him from the entire Six Nations - Farrell showed the class that England so badly missed.
He not only kicked 18 points but transformed Saracens after a sloppy first half through his sheer force of personality.
“In terms of what he did, Owen was outstanding,” said Saracens boss Mark McCall. “Emotionally, he was incredible, he drove the comeback.
“I don’t think he feels he’s quite on top of his game because he hasn’t played much recently, but he looked okay to me today.”
This was as well as the England captain has played since before the Lions tour. And McCall warned: “He’s going to get better.”
Victory for the Londoners guaranteed them a top-four finish in their first season back in the top flight following relegation for multiple salary cap breaches.
With three games left they trail leaders Leicester by four points and the way they are coming to the boil now will concern Tigers.
The contrast with the mood of the away team was stark as Exeter faced up to the probability that their ambitions for the season are dead.
Having reached six successive Premiership finals, Rob Baxter’s men need a miracle to even make the play-offs.
Baxter refuses to give up on the top four but said: “If finishing fourth or fifth is a re-set year for us, a hell of a lot of clubs would take that.
“There have been a lot of clubs who have spent 10 years bumbling along the bottom as a re-set.”
Exeter thought they had given themselves a chance when Sam Skinner and Olly Woodburn crossed for excellent second quarter tries to lead 15-10 at half-time.
They caused Saracens all sorts of problems and could have led by even more had they converted even half the chances they created.
Their failure to do so proved costly as Saracens, driven by Farrell, came out for the second half a different team.
Within six minutes they were in front, Farrell kicking a penalty, then launching the counter-attack which sent Sean Maitland over for a try which he converted.
Farrell added two more penalties either side of assisting in a try for Nick Tompkins before Ben Earl bagged the bonus point try which stamped Sarries’ ticket to the post-season.
“We feel we’re building, we feel there’s a lot more in us,” warned Farrell. “It’s up to us now if we make it happen or not.”
SARACENS - Tries: Daly, Maitland, Tompkins, Earl. Cons: Farrell 3. Pens: Farrell 4.
EXETER - Tries: Skinner, Woodburn, Townsend. Cons: Slade, Hogg. Pen: Slade.
