Saracens move on to face Racing Metro, who beat Munster at Stade de France, in Brussels next weekend and whichever team wins there will have their noses in front in the battle for supremacy on the road to a quarter-final slot.

Hodgson only missed one shot at goal from his nine attempts as he fell just one short of Glen Jackson's European club record of 26 against hapless Italian side Viadana in 2007/08. He also picked up a trademark charge down kick try.

Saracens were the dominant force at the set-pieces and in defence. By contrast, Edinburgh's line-out fell to pieces and they made a huge number of handling errors.

It certainly didn't help the home cause that neither outside-half Greig Laidlaw (shoulder) nor try machine Tim Visser (knee) emerged from the dressing room for the second half. But by then Saracens were 16-0 ahead and had crossed for one of their five tries.

England duo Chris Ashton and Owen Farrell, as well as full back candidate Alex Goode, were among the second-half try scorers and then Hodgson picked up his charge-down try.