Kat Evans believes Saracens are in great form heading into the new season, after a 29-7 victory over Bristol Rugby in the Women’s Premiership Rugby 7s final.

Saracens scored five tries at the Ricoh Arena where for the first time the women’s 7s final was played on the same stage as the men’s.

Garnet MacKinder and Nina Vistisen both grabbed a double, with Saracens having also narrowly beaten the same opposition 28-26 in the group stages.

And 7s skipper Evans is confident that the tournament has been hugely beneficial in bringing the whole squad together and embedding the new recruits.

“It’s really good to have a trophy so early in the season, we have quite a new squad, we have a lot of new players coming through and we’ve only just started working together,” she said.

“We’ve had a really hard pre-season and it just shows we’re looking good to start the new season.

“Obviously we want to make the new players feel at home so having games, training, working with them making them feel comfortable and part of the club is really important.

“It’s really important to a successful team, you can have internationals but you need to grow your team and you need depth so for them to come in and feel part of the club is a key thing to do.

“It feels amazing, it was such an experience being able to play on a pitch here and with such a big crowd and being televised as well it shows the women’s game is growing.

“Opportunities like this don’t come around very often but hopefully we’ll get a lot more opportunities this season, next season and beyond.”

Bristol and Saracens reached the final after winning the qualifying tournament at Broadstreet RFC with Saracens beating Aylesford Bulls 31-7 and Bristol seeing off Worcester Valkyries 31-12 in the semi-finals.

And for Bristol’s 7s skipper Elinor Snowsill there were positives to take into the XVs season, despite feeling like Sarries may have edged them when it came to conditioning.

“Saracens played great, they came out from the off and played really well,” she said.

“We’re gutted with scoreline because we only lost to them by two in the group stages so we’re disappointed from that but there’s a lot we can take from that.

“At the end of the day maybe their fitness and squad rotation really helped them out; a lot of us felt very heavy legged in the final.

“We were really proud to get to the final it’s a massive achievement for us and it’s a good stepping stone going into the XVs season.”

For more information results and reaction on the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Final in Coventry at the weekend – please visit www.premiershiprugby.com