Stretts: No regrets, but now let’s win it
DAVID Strettle has been on the receiving end of a Saracens onslaught and admits it is a lot easier playing for them than against them.
The wing, in his second spell with the Premiership champions, was in the other camp when he lined up for Clermont against Saracens in the Champions Cup final in 2017 at Murrayfield.
Saracens won that 28-17 for their second title but Strettle will be back onside with them when they run out against Glasgow today in their European opener after moving back from France in the summer.
And the 35-year-old knows which side he would rather be on as Saracens bid to make it three European Cups in four years.
“Being on the wrong side of it, you realise how suffocating it is,” said Strettle. “When I played against them for Clermont, the first half had that kind of grind feel. We were on our 22 and every time we cleared our lines next thing is...bang you are back in your 22.
“You just do the simple things well... if you watch international matches and top club matches the team that do that usually win. It is just this relentless defence coming at you and building pressure.”
Strettle had five years at Saracens before moving to Clermont in 2015 where he won the Top 14 in 2017 but if he had stayed put he would have had two Champions Cup winners’ medals in his locker.
“You can’t have everything,” he added. “If I had stayed here I wouldn’t have won a Top 14. You wish you had won a European Cup but if that never happens I won’t spend the rest of my life being bitter. I am over the moon for my mates who won it.
“I was lucky when I was here because I could see the team developing into a championship winning one which we did. We got to the European final but got beaten by Toulon but I feel like I was still part of the development.
“It wasn’t just ‘this team could win the European Cup one day’ we knew we could. I left and they went on to win it twice. I am at a great club who have proved they can do it and it is up to us to do it again.”
Former Galsgow wing Sean Maitland starts for the English champions. Captain Brad Barritt, Maro Itoje, Vincent Koch and Richard Wigglesworth all return to the line-up.
Dave Reenie’s Warriors have only once reached the last eight, where they were bean by Sarries at Allianz Park in 2017.
Co-captains Ryan Wilson and Callum Gibbins return to the back row, Adam Hastings starts at 10 while Canada veteran DTH van der Merwe returns on the wing, with Ruaridh Jackson at 15 in the absence of injured Stuart Hogg.
Rennie said: “Saracens are a very big side, strong up front with massive ball-carriers and defensively they bring a lot of line-speed.
“Their ability to play off their big men means they're going to ask a lot of questions of us. We want to be playing at this level against the best sides in Europe and certainly Saracens are one of the best.”