‘We were second best’ – Mark McCall felt Saracens deserved to lose to Northampton Saints

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was honest in his assessment of his team’s 18-12 loss to Northampton Saints in the Premiership on Saturday.

It was a game to forget for the defending champions who struggled to get going at home and were left scoreless at half-time.

Both teams shared two tries apiece in the second period but ultimately it was Saints fly-half Fin Smith’s boot that was the difference on the day.

Lack of energy

McCall felt Northampton deserved to win and were better across the board. He lamented his side’s lack of energy in the clash – a concern of his going into the game.

“We were second best in all areas, to be honest,” McCall said.

“We wanted consistency in our performance but we were way off it today, especially in the first half.

“Physically, both sides of the ball, we weren’t great and in general, our movement off the ball was poor as well.

“We got a little bit better in the last 20 minutes of the match when everything was on the line and that’s the kind of energy we need from the start of the match, to be honest.

“We had three games before this, Gloucester, Newcastle, Harlequins, where our energy was phenomenal and they were really strong performances.

“There were some warning signs last weekend, especially in the first half against Bristol, which felt a little bit like the first half today.

“Northampton were fantastic and they thoroughly deserved to win.”

Big win

On the other side of the coin, Saints boss Phil Dowson was delighted with his team as veteran Courtney Lawes rolled back the years with a man-of-the-match effort.

Dowson felt his team stood up to the challenge brilliantly and underlined that these kinds of results are positive for the balance of the league.

“I’m delighted with all facets of the game,” the director of rugby said.

“The lineout was under a bit of pressure and I thought we managed that when Alex Coles, our caller, went off and Chunya (Munga) as well. For Courtney (Lawes) to call that was strong.

“We talked during the week about the quality of Saracens being a measuring stick for some of the things we worked on from last season in terms of our defence, our set-piece and elements of that.

“We talked before the game about discipline issues and we want to be hard at the breakdown and create turnovers. That comes with an element of risk but we ran that balance pretty well in this game in terms of we got turnovers and didn’t give many penalties away.

“The decision-making of when to be more pragmatic is the key for us. It’s an exciting season and it adds pressure every week.

“You’ve got to be on your mettle every week. If you’re ever so slightly off, you’re going to get punished, so it’s good for the league and hopefully for the crowd as well.”

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