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'We come from Manchester, it pours down every day'
By Online Editors
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall praised the togetherness of his young team as the relegated Gallagher Premiership side overcame their off-the-field issues to beat Sale 36-22.
Tries by Rhys Carre, Rotimi Segun, Nick Isiekwe and Richard Barrington helped McCall’s men overcome their visitors to make it 13 consecutive home wins against the Sharks.
The Manchester side crossed the line through Byron McGuigan, Dan du Preez and Rob du Preez, but missed the chance to gain ground in the top-four race.
“We’re chuffed with the way we played, and the unity and togetherness that we showed,” McCall said. “It was difficult conditions and Sale chose to play with the wind in the first half.
“We needed to roll our sleeves up and we did that. Our half-backs were fantastic in the first half, Tom Whiteley, in particular, the way he kicked into that breeze.
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“We were good value at 14-3, but they got a good try. One mistake by one person and it’s 14-10. I thought the response to that in the second half was great.”
McCall noted another eye-catching performance from fly-half Manu Vunipola, who kicked 13 points in blustery conditions to put the match past Sharks.
He added: “It’s been a good year for Manu. He’s one of the ones who’s got exposed more than I thought he would be, and he’s done really well.
“This is our seventh win out of our ten Premiership matches. Most of those wins have been with this group and they have done great. These are important experiences for them going forward.”
Despite the victory, McCall felt his players could improve ahead of facing Wasps next Friday after conceding two late tries against Sharks. “When we committed to what we said we were going to commit to, we were great,” the director of rugby added.
“When we were off the boil a little bit and our intensity dropped, then you got what you got in the last 10 minutes. That’s maybe an important lesson for us.”
Sale lost the opportunity to move up the Premiership table but stayed third as other results went their way. Director of rugby Steve Diamond refused to blame the weather for Sale’s performance in London.
He said: “We come from Manchester, it pours it down every day. We trained with the wind all week, but it was just a bit more experience in their team to put us to the sword in that first half.
“Fair play to Saracens, their strength of depth runs deep. Players come in and stay in structure and they did that really well. We have been playing well over the past six weeks, we just didn’t play (today), we didn’t get past one phase. I’m a little bit disappointed with that.”
- Press Association
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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