'I'm not sure if they are the best team in Europe' - Mark McCall

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall has pledged to use the lessons learned from his side’s 24-10 Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final defeat in La Rochelle to help them reach the Gallagher Premiership final.

The ‘Men in Black’ have already clinched a home semi-final and are chasing a different result than last season, when they were beaten by Leicester Tigers at Twickenham in the final.

But their European dreams are over, blown apart by the power of the La Rochelle pack and an inability to finish their chances. They also conceded 18 penalties after getting on the wrong side of Irish referee Andrew Brace’s whistle, and missed 26 tackles.

“The penalty count was a big issue for us, and we didn’t have the accuracy and precision you need against the very top teams. Their defence was also incredible,” said McCall.

“We had a lot of ball and a lot of times down their end without looking like we were going to score. They were very good at capitalising on any bit of field position they got.

“We’ve got five weeks until our home semi-final and we can learn a lot of lessons from today and work on them before then.”

Saracens conceded three penalties in the opening seven minutes at the breakdown and quickly found themselves trailing by six points. They were eventually turned over 15 times in the game.

Twice they got over the home try line in the second half, but on both occasions Ben Earl and Maro Itoje were held up. Eroni Mawi eventually crashed over in the 65th minute, but two tries from All Blacks scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow proved the difference.

“They brought their best game today and we knew they would; after all, they are a great team and the European champions. If you want to play against them you have to be incredibly accurate and we weren’t,” admitted McCall.

“I’m not sure if they are the best team in Europe or the favourites to win it again. There are a couple of other teams like Toulouse and Leinster who are outstanding sides.

“Home advantage is worth a lot, as we’ve seen in the last 16 and the quarter-finals.”

Having beaten Northampton Saints twice in the pool stage, and Gloucester and Saracens in the knock-out stages, La Rochelle will now clash with Exeter Chiefs in the semi-final in Bordeaux at the end of the month.

All four semi-finalists are former champions, with La Rochelle, Exeter and Toulouse being the last three champions. Leinster last won in 2018.

“It was a great performance because we never gave in mentally. Saracens have a great mindset founded on doggedness, respect and humility and we knew we would be tested,” said La Rochelle head coach, Ronan O’Gara.

“We couldn’t put them away but we had enough in the bank to keep them at arm’s length. The game is based on fine margins, and we are aware of that, and what was really pleasing was we didn’t give them any scores.

“Most of the game they were on three points and then they got a try that Andrew Brace saw, and it took confirmation from the TMO that it was a scorer.

“We’re very happy, it’s a special place. It’s very important for me as a coach to connect with the boys. They are a very caring group, they like it here and they represent the town well.”