Exclusive: Lock George Kruis believes Saracens have got the squad depth to cope with an injury blow that is set to keep England centre Joel Tomkins on the sidelines for up to 12 weeks.

The former Wigan rugby league ace sustained a knee ligament injury in the final stages of the autumn international defeat to New Zealand, which paved the way for Tim Streather to make his Premiership debut in Saturday’s hard-fought 16-9 win Exeter Chiefs.

“Coming off the back of autumn internationals, it comes down to squad depth and we’ve proved that we’ve got a great one,” said Kruis.

“Tim Streather came in for his Premiership debut and he was absolutely awesome, so I think that also shows the depth we’ve got.

We’ve signed Marcello Bosch as well so we’ve got some great centres at the moment.”

Argentina midfield ace Bosch slotted a trademark long-distance penalty at Sandy Park but took a bang to the head and was replaced late on as a precaution similar to Charlie Hodgson’s withdrawal in the early exchanges.

Reshuffles saw full-back Alex Goode fill-in at No10 while his replacement, Ben Ransom, scored the game’s only try before the Londoners managed to grind out a victory at Sandy Park.

That came from some stubborn defending and two video decisions that went their way. The second, right at the death, saw Kruis as the last line of defence to help thwart Tom Johnson with a well-timed block on the line as the Exeter flanker tried to ground the ball.

Kruis, however, admitted to a nervous wait for the decision of the television match official.

He said: “I was standing right next to it and was pretty sure they’d scored, but Tom Johnson looked really disappointed and wasn’t celebrating, so there was a glimmer of hope there.

“I think it was a fair result. We defended very well for 30 minutes [at the end], but ultimately we controlled the game.”

Sarries host Sale Sharks on Saturday and Kruis is certain that the same never-say-die attitude shown at Exeter can see them through at Allianz Park.

“As long as we stick to our own principles I think we’ll do pretty well,” he said, “They’ve got [director of rugby] Steve Diamond and the whole aura of a big, physical team and I think if we can nullify that and take that away early doors then they are just like any other team.”