Where Mark McCall thinks it all went wrong for Saracens

Director of rugby Mark McCall admitted Saracens had been beaten by the better team after going down 28-3 to Glasgow at Scotstoun.

A victory in Scotland could have seen the London club clinch home advantage in the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 but instead their fate is an away tie to Bath on the first weekend of April.

This was Glasgow’s fourth bonus victory in the pool stage to earn them a knockout tie at home to the Bulls after tries from Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, George Horne and Seb Stephen.

Saracens’ only points came from an Owen Farrell penalty and McCall had little complaints about the outcome.

He said: “We were playing a very good team. We obviously started the game slowly. It was 7-3 after 24 minutes but it didn’t feel that way. I felt that they were the team on the front foot, we were the team on the back foot.

“We had a hill to climb in the second half and I thought our effort and our fight in the second half was great. But at the minute we’re just not joining up that effort and fight.

“I think we had 70 per cent territory in the whole game and to come up with three points when we’ve got 70 per cent territory is not good enough. We just couldn’t get speed of ball, we couldn’t take the odd five-metre lineout opportunities that we got, and they defended brilliantly.

“They’re really good. They’re obviously well into this team’s cycle. They’ve been together for three or four years and there are a lot of familiar combinations there.”

Glasgow will be seen as Champions Cup dark horses and head coach Franco Smith praised his players’ effort.

He said: “I’m really proud, the fact that we stuck to it till the end. They (Saracens) are a quality side, we all know that. The fact that the way they attacked in the second part of the game and kept the ball away from us was really good.

“Yes, we made some uncommon errors in the second part of the game, dropped the ball and small things like that. But the fact that we stuck to it all the way to the end, I’m really proud.”