McCall hails brilliant finale as Saracens claim crown
SARACENS were crowned English champions for the third time in four years when they outclassed holders Exeter in the Premiership final yesterday as veteran American winger Chris Wyles marked his last game before retirement with two tries.
Having been deposed as back-toback European champions it was a fitting way for Saracens to end the season as their superb defence absorbed everything Exeter threw at them while they also looked by far the more dangerous in attack.
After an early try by Billy Vunipola it was two more either side of halftime for Wyles, playing his last game for the club he has served so well for 10 years, that effectively settled the match.
Exeter, who finished top of the standings after the regular season, showed great heart but not enough variety and, though Gareth Steenson got them briefly back to within nine points after 63 minutes, a Ben Spencer penalty and a Nathan Earle try gave Saracens the deserved win.
‘That was an absolutely brilliant performance – the effort the players put in was extraordinary,’ said Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall. ‘I think that’s our best performance in a final because of the effort the players put in.’
Exeter coach Rob Baxter had no complaints. ‘I don’t think it was our best performance, but it would be churlish to focus on that as today was more about Saracens and the pressure they created that we didn’t really deal with,’ he said.
After Vunipola smashed his way through for the opening try, Saracens then showed that they can cut loose too with a brilliantly worked try for 34-year-old Wyles.
That was enough to give them a 12-3 half-time lead and, having ‘won’ the second half of their last four regular season games by an aggregate of 149-0, few in the 75,000 crowd were bracing themselves for a big comeback.
The victory was a fitting farewell for Wyles and Brits, who is returning to South Africa, and also a landmark for Richard Wigglesworth, who is now the first player to win five Premiership titles. ExEtEr ChiEfs: Turner; Nowell, Slade, S Hill (Whitten, 48), Woodburn; J Simmonds (Steenson, 48), White (Townsend, 58); Hepburn (Moon, 48), Cowan-Dickie (Yeandle, 48), Francis (G Holmes, 48), Lees (S Skinner, 51), J Hill, Ewers, Armand (Waldrom, 31-40), S Simmonds (Waldrom, 66) scorers – tries: Steenson. Con: Steenson. Pen: J Simmonds. saraCEns: Goode; Maitland (Earle, 75), Lozowski, Barritt (Bosch, 51-58), Wyles (George, 65); Farrell (Bosch, 66), Wigglesworth (Spencer, 58); M Vunipola (Barrington, 75), George (Brits, 53), Koch (Figallo, 53), Itoje, Kruis, Isiekwe (Skelton, 66), Wray, B Vunipola (Rhodes, 59) scorers – tries: B Vunipola, Wyles 2, Earle. Cons: Farrell 2. Pen: Spencer referee: W Barnes (England). attendance: 75,128