Wasps job lot tougher than romp at The Rec
MARK McCall has challenged his Sarries stars to prove they can reproduce their impressive Bath romp when Wasps arrive at StoneX Stadium.
The director of rugby expects today’s opponents to give his side a much tougher test than in their 71-17 win at The Rec.
Wasps ran out 28-18 on their last visit to Sarries having already stuck 60 points on them at the Ricoh and McCall was impressed by the battle they gave Exeter last weekend before losing out at the death.
But McCall saw enough in his own team’s performance at The Rec to feel confident, as they crushed Bath with ten tries to make it four wins from their opening five games back in the Premiership.
“No one is getting carried away here by what happened at Bath,” McCall said. “We are on our new journey and it’s a long one. The first two games were hit and miss, and I don’t think the scoreline against Bath reflected the game in some ways. But there were some really encouraging signs that give us a very strong platform going forward, and now we have to back it up.”
He added: “Wasps are a very good team and will be tough to beat. They defeated Bristol by 40 points and also overcame Northampton when they were unbeaten at that stage. They fronted up unbelievably well under a lot of pressure against Exeter – some defensive sets were outstanding.
“They beat us the last time they came to our place, so we know not to underestimate them. We need to be prepared to graft and roll up our sleeves.”
McCall makes three changes to his starting XV. Vincent Koch gets his first start of the season, Andy Christie comes in to the back row and Dom Morris returns to the midfield.
Saracens are preparing to lose some key England men after today’s game as the Autumn Internationals loom but will have brothers Billy and Mako Vunipola available having been left out by Eddie Jones. McCall insists he has a squad capable of filling the gaps left by Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje Jamie George and Max Malins.
“Selection is easy because we are rotating,” he says. “The players know when they are playing or not. We have four England players away next week so more changes will be made. That’s the challenge we’ve been used to over the years and we’ll be fine.”
McCall says it is impossible to predict which four teams will make the playoffs this season: “A couple of years ago I would have been able to look at the fixture list and predict who would beat who. You can’t do that as comfortably now. There have been a lot of games going down to the last ten minutes.”
Bench lock Tim Swinson says Sarries’ bid for the title is again driven by a strong team spirit rather than individual brilliance.
He said: “The win over Bath showed you can have good quality players in your team but if you don’t play as a team you really come unstuck.”