Class and self-belief will help Saracens end five-game losing run
European champions are still the complete package, as double-header against Clermont will show
Ido not think it can ever have happened before that the top two teams in all five Champions Cup pools have played each other home and away on consecutive weekends in December, as is the case this weekend and next. I am all for it, though. There are some mouth-watering double-headers in there. None more so than that which pits Saracens against Clermont – last season’s two finalists, of course – at Allianz Park today and then again at the Stade Marcel-Michelin next week.
Saracens simply have to win this afternoon. It is as simple as that.
Every team needs to win their home match, and then try to get something – anything – away from home. But Saracens even more than most. After five consecutive defeats in all competitions (three in the Premiership and two in the Anglo-Welsh Cup), Mark McCall’s team are facing their first “mini-crisis” in years.
Personally, I would not even classify it as a mini-crisis. I think Saracens are still the best team in the country by a distance. Their recent defeats have been more down to their own errors than any team playing them off the park. That would be more worrying.
Take their 20-19 defeat against Harlequins last weekend, for instance, when a late kick fell for Tim Visser. Or their defeat at Gloucester a few weeks ago when they played their hosts off the park for 40 minutes and should have been out of sight at half-time.
That they lost both games will rankle with McCall. You could sense his frustration at the finish at The Stoop last Sunday when he described his team as “masters of their own downfall”. But I do not think it is panic stations by any stretch.
Saracens have had a few injuries. Any team would miss players of the quality of Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola, Liam Williams, Duncan Taylor and Michael Rhodes. And they have had to play for much of the past month without their international contingent as well. Not that they will use those facts as an excuse. One thing that has impressed me about Saracens over the past three years or so is that they are extremely honest. They do not seek to blame anyone else. They will look hard at themselves and they will respond. It is why I expect them to see off Clermont today.
Saracens have still got that incredible defensive line-speed. And when they get on the front foot, they can still increase the tempo of a game to a level that other teams cannot live with; they can attack from anywhere and they can play an offloading game as and when they need to. They are the complete package.
They have had a few 10-15 minute spells recently when they have lost focus and made mistakes. And that is uncharacteristic. But it is not as if they have been played off the park by anyone. As two-time European champions, they have huge reserves of self-belief. I always refer back to that 46-6 win over Clermont in the semi-finals in 2014. Although they lost the final to Toulon, that was the game everything changed for Saracens. It changed that squad of players forever.
I remember the same thing happening when I was at Wasps in 2007. We had an important win away at Castres in the group stages, with a group of players including Raphael Ibanez and Phil Vickery, who were sort of taking on the baton from the old guard. We had a different feel in the squad after that win, a new self-belief. We went on to thrash Leinster in the quarters and Northampton in the semis before beating Leicester Tigers in the final. But it was that Castres game which changed everything.
Saracens already have that selfbelief. For them it is about redefining their game a little; focusing on those 10-15 minute segments and getting that consistency back. As the pressure rises, so will their standards.
Exeter Chiefs, who face Leinster today at Sandy Park in another mouth-watering clash, are still looking for that defining performance in Europe which will lift them to the next level. They have had an incredible start to this year’s competition, with wins at home against Glasgow and away at Montpellier, who were my dark horses for the entire tournament. But Leinster will pose a new challenge.
The Chiefs might be Premiership champions but it is Leinster who have all the European pedigree. They will attack in different ways and it will be a wonderful test of Rob Baxter’s squad. If Exeter can get the win, or even better, win away next weekend, that could be the defining performance they need to move them on again. The dynamic could change completely.
I said at the start of the season that Exeter needed to progress to the latter stages in Europe to have a really successful season and I’m sure that is how Rob and Ali Hepher see it too. If you asked them now whether they would rather win the Premiership or the Champions Cup, I know which they would say. It is the same for every team. It is what makes these next two weekends so fascinating. This is the competition everyone wants to win.