Mark McCall: 'Six weeks ago we started talking about it'

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall feels his team’s fate is now in their own hands after a 30-14 victory over Gloucester put them back in the mix for the Gallagher Prem play-offs.

With two matches of the regular season left, Sarries are three points behind fourth-placed Exeter who had lost against Harlequins earlier on Saturday.

While they were not at their best during their fourth win in a row, there is the enticing prospect of a winner-takes-all clash between the Chiefs and Saracens at Sandy Park on the final day in three weeks’ time.

McCall said: “Six weeks ago we started talking about it (the play-offs), what was left and we knew it wasn’t in our hands at all, to be honest, but we could do what we could do.

“I think the three games before this we played better than we did today, although some aspects of our game today I’m pleased with and were strong.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Northampton

16

13

2

1

67

2

Bath

16

12

4

0

63

3

Leicester

15

11

4

0

57

4

Exeter Chiefs

16

9

6

1

55

5

Saracens

16

9

7

0

52

6

Bristol

16

10

6

0

50

7

Sale

15

4

11

0

28

8

Harlequins

16

5

11

0

26

9

Gloucester

16

4

12

0

25

10

Newcastle

16

1

15

0

7

“But six weeks on from going up to Sale it’s in our hands now and we welcome Quins here, and obviously they had a great result today against Exeter, which helps us but underlines how important it is you respect every opponent that comes.

“I thought defensively we were really at it today, I thought we scrummed well and our maul defence was good, so set-piece and defence was really good today.

“But with the ball we were, let’s be honest, poor. We had piles of opportunities in their 22 and were pretty poor.”

Saracens eased into an 18-0 lead in the first half thanks to two early tries from Rotimi Segun and two penalties from fly-half Fergus Burke.

Scores from Ben Earl and Theo Dan secured the bonus point for the hosts after the break, before Will Joseph’s late double gave Gloucester some consolation.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: “I don’t think we were clinical enough in the first half.

“We created a lot of opportunities, a lot of line breaks, but didn’t take them and Sarries away is very difficult, especially when they score two relatively easy tries against us in the first 12 minutes.

“We talked all week that we knew Sarries were under pressure, they had to win this game, so they were going to come out of the blocks hard and fast.

“The first try, particularly, we fell off a couple of tackles and the second one we left a gaping hole for their winger to go through.

“It was disappointing for them to get that straight on us and then post that we clicked into gear really hard.

“We had to do a lot of defending today and I thought it was pretty heroic for the most part. We wanted to find out where we’re at, and we did.”