Sarries are bidding to shock Finn

MAKO Vunipola and his fellow Saracens will set out today to scale another European peak, driven by a desire to enter the pantheon before they exit the Premiership.

Mark McCall’s side conquered Dublin last weekend and now they are in Paris, trying to claim another prized scalp when they take on Finn Russell’s Racing 92 in a huge Heineken Champions Cup semi-final at La Defense Arena.

There can be pride before the impending fall. Saracens are braced for relegation as punishment for salary cap offences but having harnessed their potent mood of defiance to shock Leinster, they have their sights set on joining an exclusive continental club before accepting their fate.

Leinster and Toulouse lead the roll of honour with four titles in Europe’s blue-riband event. Sarries want to elevate themselves to that category, after winning the trophy in 2016, 2017 and 2019. It has been a target for six years, since they were beaten by Toulon in the 2014 final.

‘I remember after we lost the Premiership final and the European final in 2014, we spoke about wanting to be in the same league as teams like Leinster and Toulouse,’ said England prop Vunipola. ‘Those are the sort of teams people think of as the best in Europe and we wanted to be in that conversation.

‘We knew we had to cross that big hurdle of winning it for the first time but, when we did that, we wanted to keep doing it. Now we want to enjoy this moment because we don’t know when we might get this chance again.’

The crux of Saracens’ challenge is to rise to the same heights of intensity and aggression as they did to overwhelm Leinster.

Despite a recent exodus, they have the personnel to beat Racing, with Scottish trio Tim Swinson, Duncan Taylor and Sean Maitland all starting for Sarries.

But only if the players can lift themselves for a repeat performance. Vunipola knows that is not a given.

‘It is difficult,’ said the loosehead, about that mental challenge. ‘We had a long time before Leinster so we prepped a lot for it and that allowed us to focus on our mentality. But you want to be in the position where you have to get back up again. You want to be in these knockout games.

‘This is our last opportunity to win silverware. Not just this year but for a while. The Champions Cup is dear to us because we’ve had a few heartaches in it but we’ve also had the delight of winning it. And some boys are leaving who’ve been big players for us, so we want to make more memories with them.’

For all the artistic threat posed by Scotland playmaker Russell, Simon Zebo and Teddy Thomas, Vunipola knows that this game will be decided by whether Saracens can cope with Racing’s physicality.

‘They have a lot of ball players,’ he said. ‘But we are under no illusions about how physically up for it we need to be.’