Saracens’ run to cup final fuelled by 2018 heartache
0 Alex Lozowski of Saracens charges upfield during Saturday’s victory over Munster. group. We get very excited by this tournament – we love it. It means a lot to the club. It’s a very special tournament, and to be in another final is outstanding for the whole group.”
Next month’s final will be just over 11 years to the day since Goode made his Saracens debut, and he said: “For me, this club is unbelievably special. It is the only club I’ve known and I love being part of it. It is another campaign where we are doing very well.
“I cherish these semi-finals and finals because you never know when they are gone and, for me, it means everything being out there for this club.
“I have never played at St James’ Park before and I am very excited for it and a European final. I know how hard they are and how well you have to play.”
There was controversy after the match as Vunipola, who has received formal warnings from his club and the Rugby Football Union in the past week after a homophobic social media post, appeared to be confronted by spectator. A picture showed the England star being approached by a man wearing a Munster shirt, gesturing at him with his fingers as Vunipola joined teammates on a lap of honour.
Tournament organisers European Professional Club Rugby described it as a “regrettable incident”.
Saracens rugby director Mark Mccall said on his side’s performance: “The team was outstanding across the board. We got all the big parts of our game right – it was a great team effort. You work incredibly hard to be involved in games like this one. You could see how tight the group was and how together we were.
“We know that Munster do their fundamentals incredibly well – their set-piece is outstanding. They are an impressive defensive team, hard to get momentum against, but we managed to do that. It was a wearing down process. These games take a long time to win. We felt it was building. It was a good persistent performance.”