At the start of pre-season, at their St Albans training ground, Brendan Venter made a speech to his Saracens squad.

“I don’t want to be competitive in this league,” the returning director of rugby said. “I want to dominate.”

Sunday was a good start.

Sarries were short of domination – the lead swapped hands four times in the final half hour of a blockbuster – but victory away at Leicester was a fine statement of intent.

Hobbled by an injury to Olly Hartley in the first half and then reduced to 14 men by Nick Isiekwe’s 20-minute red card in the second, the visitors nonetheless dug deep and silenced the baying Tigers fans with an extraordinary 40-38 win.

“We’ve worked a lot more on our mental game, our ability to deal with setbacks, to keep sticking to our process when things don’t go our way,” Ben Earl, who was initially deployed in the centres in a rejigged backline, told BBC Radio 5 Live afterwards.

“Maybe a different Sarries team from the last couple of years would probably have dropped away in different points in that, but we kept fighting away and finding a way.”

Since their return from the Championship, no club has racked up more regular-season Prem points over the last five campaigns than Saracens.

They haven’t felt as consistent as that stat suggests though. They narrowly missed out on the play-offs in each of the past two seasons.

This year, they have been strengthened by signings; Tomos Williams crackled with cunning at scrum-half. But they also have a hugely promising generation of talent coming through.

Second row Olamide Sodeke, 21, came on and played his part in a massive front-five final-quarter effort.

Twenty-two year-old Nathan Michelow, part of the England’s 2024 under-20 World Cup winning side, is pushing hard for a starting spot in a stacked back row.

If Venter can marry young, new and superstar existing talent, while rallying the squad around his belligerent belief, they will be hard to stop.

The Football Association of Ireland is investigating whether forward Adam Idah was racially abused by Israel supporters during Sunday’s 3-0 Uefa Nations League victory for the Republic of Ireland.

BBC Sport understands that midfielder Jayson Molumby spoke to the match officials during play, asking them to listen out for what he believed to be abusive chanting coming from some of the small number of Israel fans present at the match.

After full-time the officials informed FAI staff members that they did not subsequently hear any racist chanting.

When the FAI spoke to the Uefa match delegate about the alleged incident, they were informed that because no clear allegation of racism was reported during the game, the normal protocols had not been followed and a Uefa investigation could not take place.

The FAI is now conducting its own investigation by amassing high-quality footage of the match, including audio from pitchside microphones, in order to establish whether or not abuse was directed at Idah.

A panel is being set up by the FAI to analyse the footage and audio recordings. If the panel believes there is evidence to suggest Idah was abused, it will make a complaint to Uefa and request a further investigation by European football’s governing body.

Idah was unaware of any possible abuse during the match and is now being supported by team-mates and staff members before the Republic of Ireland’s remaining three fixtures in the current international break.

It is unclear whether the FAI would present its case to Uefa before or after Sunday’s behind-closed-doors game against Israel in Backa Topola, Serbia.

BBC Sport has contacted Uefa for comment.