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'Not much to lose, everything to gain': McCall on Saracens' mission improbable
Mark McCall wants his Saracens team to play “with freedom and without pressure” when they face mission improbable against Leinster on Saturday. The Heineken Champions Cup holders head to Dublin for a behind-closed-doors European showdown with a side unbeaten since Saracens toppled them in last season’s final 16 months ago.
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The Aviva Stadium quarter-final is Saracens’ biggest game of a miserable campaign engulfed by their impending relegation from the Gallagher Premiership for persistent salary cap breaches. They will not return to Champions Cup rugby until at least 2022 as a result, yet Saracens can still make the biggest of statements by eliminating a team in imperious form.
Leinster, who have reeled off 25 successive victories in all competitions and won the Guinness PRO14 title last weekend, are chasing a record fifth European crown and their last defeat was almost 500 days ago. “It feels that we’ve got a bit of freedom. Not much to lose, everything to gain,” said Saracens rugby director McCall, who will start experienced Alex Goode at fly-half instead of a suspended Owen Farrell.
“I know the quality of player we’ve got here and everything they have been through together – the highs and lows over a long period of time – and they are very determined to give as good an account of themselves as they can. We want the players to play with freedom and without pressure, and I think we are at our best when we play without pressure.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t want to be in the fight. Knockout games, especially in Europe, are a big thrill. You have a long season when a lot of the weeks feel the same, and then you have one like this where it feels very different. That is something we’ve all craved.”
Leinster vs Saracens has a brief history but a memorable one. Who gets the win this weekend? #LeinsterVsSaracens #EuropeanChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/MRiFW3RHap
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 17, 2020
While Goode moves from full-back – Elliot Daly wears the No15 shirt – elsewhere there is a return after injury for England prop Mako Vunipola and flanker Jackson Wray makes his 250th Saracens appearance. Leinster welcome back fly-half and captain Johnny Sexton after he was rested to the bench for the PRO14 final against Ulster.
Assessing Leinster’s threat, McCall added: “They’ve played some tough opposition for the last couple of weeks, and maybe our preparation has been a little different to that, but I do think that a quarter-final can be very much on the day.
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“Previous form doesn’t always count for everything. Clearly, they are playing very well, but we have a group of players who are very experienced in knock-out rugby. They [Leinster] are not the kind of team that has a glaring weakness, but we have to try and ask questions they haven’t been asked for a while.”
A Saracens victory would see them facing another testing away encounter in next weekend’s semi-finals against one of two French heavyweights – Clermont Auvergne or Racing 92 – who meet on Saturday. Sunday’s quarter-final action sees an all-Premiership encounter at Sandy Park between Exeter and Northampton, while Toulouse host Ulster.
This Leinster side deserved a flashier denouement to their unbeaten campaign but their dominance of the PRO14 isn't necessarily a negative, argues @heagneyl 👨💻https://t.co/jRnY80TkpY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 13, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments