Young Saracens will learn – McCall

Editor

Saracens will bounce back strongly from their Champions Cup heartache according to director of rugby Mark McCall.

The Premiership side went down 13-9 to Clermont Auvergne in Saint-Etienne, missing out on the chance to reach back-to-back finals.

Wesley Fofana's try proved crucial for the French side, but McCall believes his young team showed a great deal of character in front of a vociferous crowd.

"The effort and many, many aspects of the performance were phenomenal," McCall said.

"We made Clermont play a game that they didn’t really want to play.

"The game was on a knife-edge all the way through. We made maybe a few too many errors at crucial times, but in terms of the big things that we judge ourselves on, we were magnificent.

"In the starting pack, there were five players who were 24 and under, which is unbelievably young for a competition like this, but all of them are ready. They showed that today.

"They are five young English players, and hopefully they are going to be the mainstay of our club for years to come.

"The energy of the team and how we hunted them down, it was just one of those big titanic games. That young pack of forwards is going to get better and better after experiences like this."