SARACENS moved to within 80 minutes of claiming the sixth and final place in next season's Heineken Cup after they booked their place in the final of Zurich Wildcard Play-Off despite going down 27-13 to Leeds Tykes at Headingley on Sunday.

The Men in Black, emphatic 70-48 winners over the two legs, will now meet the current European champions, Leicester Tigers, at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday, May 31 in what will be their first cup final appearance since the memorable Tetley's Bitter Cup triumph over London Wasps in 1998.

With Sarries enjoying a 36-point advantage, the second leg, barring a calamitous performance, looked a formality and, in truth, Leeds never looked capable of overhauling the deficit.

In all honesty, both teams, and a disappointing crowd of 1,400, knew the tie was over and this contributed to a rather lifeless first-half.

However, someone forgot to tell Christian Califano and Mark Regan that there was little at stake as they were sent to the sin-bin inside two minutes after trading a flurry of punches on the floor.

Califano was singled out as the instigator and Gordon Ross, the Leeds fly-half, converted the subsequent penalty which cancelled out Andy Goode's first-minute penalty.

That was the largely the extent of the action in a desultory first-half, littered with errors, until Leeds finally breached a resolute Sarries' defence two minutes before the break. A neat grubber from Ross was threaded in behind the visitors back-line and was grounded by Dan Scarbrough ahead of Goode. Ross missed the conversion to leave Leeds only 8-3 up at the break and 29-60 behind on aggregate.

The match suddenly sparked into life after just a minute of the second half when Sarries administered the final bolt to close the door on any potential Leeds comeback.

Matt Cairns, buoyed by his call up to the England squad, seized on a Leeds' handling error inside the Saracens' 22 and hacked the ball 60 metres clear. The electric Richard Haughton won the foot race to the loose ball, kicked on before gathering and seemed certain to score. However, he was hauled down on the try-line by Scarbrough, but the Sevens' star showed the presence of mind to unselfishly flick the ball up for Cairns, the hooker, who was rewarded for his attempt to keep pace with his team-mate with a simple try. Goode brilliantly landed the touchline conversion to extend Sarries aggregate lead to 38 points.

Sarries looked in control and on-course for only their second away win of the season on English soil until a flurry of second-half substitutions, including the return of Thomas Castaignede after almost a month on the sidelines, disrupted their rhythm and momentum and handed Leeds the initiative.

After a try from lock Chris Murphy on 55 minutes, the home side powered clear in the final quarter to win the match, but not the tie, at a canter.

Leeds also benefited from the departure of Sarries back-row pivot Richard Hill, who was helped from the field with an ankle injury on 67 minutes. His absence was felt immediately by the Sarries' pack who failed to repel a slick drive from a line-out and Alix Popham rumbled over. Ross, however, struck the outside of the post with the conversion.

In almost a carbon copy, Leeds repeated the trick on the other side of the pitch three minutes later but this time Cameron Mather was bundled over and Ross was on hand to convert.

With ten minutes to play and having seen their lead cut to 19 points, Sarries, mindful of their propensity to capitulate, were beginning to look edgy but they suffered no further alarms and Goode settled any jangling nerves with a 76th penalty to complete the scoring.