Director of rugby at Saracens, Mark McCall, was pleased with his England team’s performance in their win over the Leicester Tigers.
Their star players were back in action on Saturday in their league matchup against the 2022 champions, which took place just one week after the Rugby World Cup concluded.
The likes of Owen Farrell, Ben Earl, and Maro Itoje were all involved.
No need for rest
They put themselves into Sarries’ game against the Tigers, which they won 32-17, and did not feel the need to take an extra week off.
“I’m very pleased. It wasn’t perfect—far from it—but it was a bit of a gamble with seven English internationals coming back who had not been at the club for the last four months,” McCall said.
“I’m just surprised that those international players were as enthusiastic to come and play for their club as they were.
“They haven’t been here; they’ve been training with a different team and a different system, but what we’ve found down the years is that these players are very good at coming back in and getting on board very quickly, and you saw that today with the way they all played.
“I’m really proud of those England players.
“They all had an option [for a week off]. We left it to them to see when their break was going to happen, and they all said they wanted to come in and play this game, which says something.”
Those England players had not featured for Saracens since May’s Premiership final, but they showed no signs of rust as they earned a comfortable victory.
After a difficult start to the season, it was Sarries’ second consecutive win as they moved up to seventh in the table.
Leicester reaction
The Londoners also condemned Leicester to their third defeat of the season in what has been a disappointing start for new boss Dan McKellar.
“I thought we showed a whole lot of fight, but we didn’t execute,” McKellar said.
“My approach was always to give the boys a week off after the World Cup to connect with family.
“It’s a huge emotional and physical toll on their bodies to go through three or four months in camp.
“Mark [McCall] had a different strategy, but it was always my approach. There are no good or bad things.
We were aware that playing against a loaded Saracens team would present a significant test, but we are only in control of our own actions.
They performed well, and we had to do better. It’s motivating, but the truth is that we came here to win, not to experience a romantic setback.
“That’s the ball game; we scored three from 11 in the attacking 22, and they scored five from eight.”
Leave a Reply