Mark McCall surprised by area Saracens 'actually dominated' against French

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall credited his forwards for providing the platform for a dominant 47-10 win over Clermont Auvergne in their opening fixture of the Investec Champions Cup.

Despite having big names such as Maro Itoje, Ben Earl, Jamie George and Juan Martin Gonzalez unavailable, Sarries had far too much up front for a young Clermont side at the StoneX Stadium.

They ran in seven tries, Noah Caluori scoring the pick of them, as they bounced back from their Gallagher PREM loss against Bath against the club they defeated in the final of this competition in 2017.

McCall said: “It was a step forward from last weekend, which we were positive about but there was definitely some (room for) growth and I felt we improved in the areas we wanted to.

“For two weekends in a row we’ve come up against a very strong front row, in Bath and obviously this is one of the bigger French teams.

“Our scrum held up very well again today but more than that, we actually dominated today.

“Their maul was a big threat and our maul defence was superb today and Hugh Tizard was at the heart of that, helped by his team-mates.

“I thought it was our forwards who laid the platform for what happened.

“Obviously, Noah [Caluori] had some good moments in the game. He’s building, he’s getting a lot of help and support from his experienced team-mates and he has those moments of brilliance which can turn matches – and long may that continue.”

A brace from Lucio Cinti set Saracens on their way before tries from Max Malins and James Hadfield had them 26-0 ahead at half-time.

Caluori’s stunning individual effort was then added to by Tizard and Theo Dan’s late scores, with Axel Guillaud and Harry Plummer grabbing consolations for Clermont.

Man-of-the-match Tizard said: “We had a really good week and we sort of had an attitude of whatever happens, we’ll stay true to ourselves and be disciplined and aggressive, and I thought we were.

“We didn’t get frustrated at all, which was a big thing for us.

“We’ve got a really competitive pack – even when we’re training against some of the younger lads coming through, they’re really pushing us and they’re getting better themselves.

“It’s very competitive in training and that shows on the pitch.

“We’ve got a real focus on not conceding points in the last 10 minutes of any half so to put out a really physical display in those last crucial minutes of both halves was really pleasing.

“Luckily Ivan [van Zyl] gave me the nod that someone was coming (during his try), so I came to my senses quite quickly and it was good to get over.”