Saracens go to Munster in the Champions Cup on Saturday with the London club still motivated by the prestige of the competition they have won three times, the goal of a first win on the Irish province’s soil at the fifth attempt and the international ambitions of individuals, too.
At the same time, Saracens boss Mark McCall describes the Champions Cup pool format as “clunky”, and he believes some rival English clubs are putting greater effort into winning the domestic Premiership instead.
“I have talked to a couple of other directors of rugby in the last few weeks,” McCall told The i Paper.
“It’s clear not everyone is targeting it [Europe]. Some teams want to win the Prem at all costs, and you can see that in the teams they’re selecting.
“Because we have still got players here who have a history in the competition, and see this competition as a step up, for the first two rounds certainly we were saying ‘Let’s give it a proper go’ – which was why we picked the team we did for [the Premiership loss at] Newcastle [Falcons].
The Saracens man giving Steve Borthwick a Six Nations headache
Read More“I could have picked six England players against Newcastle, but we kept them for Europe.
“It got us into a position where we can still be in this competition in April, and possibly with a home draw. And the players wanted to do that. So I thought that was the right thing to do.”
Saracens hooker and England captain Jamie George shared in the European titles of 2016, 2017 and 2019, and along the way they beat Munster in semi-finals in Dublin and Coventry.
But McCall is well aware Sarries have lost on each of their four visits to Munster; three of them on his watch since 2009.
With pool wins over the Bulls and Stade Francais in the bank, George spoke to his teammates this week about the history and feverish atmosphere they can expect from a 20,000-plus crowd in Limerick, and a plane-load of Saracens sponsors and guests are along for the ride.
But McCall warns them: “Munster won the URC two years ago and they were top of the URC after the regular season, last season.
“They’re a team who can be better than the sum of their parts – they’re absolute masters of it.
“And if something’s going to bring them back to life, it’s going to be a European game at half five on a Saturday night at Thomond Park.”
Tom Willis is hoping to show off his England credentials (Photo: Getty)Individually, Saracens No 8 Tom Willis has a final chance to impress England head coach Steve Borthwick before the country’s Six Nations squad is named on Tuesday, with possibly eight Sarries players included.
Meanwhile, the three-way-qualified fly-half Fergus Burke needs to decide whether to plump for Scotland over England – or wait for his native New Zealand – to start his international career.
The i Paper understands Burke, who joined Saracens from Crusaders last summer, would have played in England A’s match against an Australia XV in November, or for Scotland against Portugal at the same time, but the 25-year-old refrained from making the binding commitment.
McCall told The i Paper: “In November, there was definitely interest from both England and Scotland, they both talked to him.
“I think he’ll nail his colours to the mast pretty soon, because he’s 25 and doesn’t want to wait too long.”
Saracens’ record against Munster in the Champions Cup
1999-00 – Pool: Saracens 34 Munster 35; Munster 31 Saracens 30 2007-08 – Semi-final in Coventry: Saracens 16 Munster 18 2012-13 – Pool: Munster 15 Saracens 9; Saracens 19 Munster 13 2014-15 – Pool: Munster 14 Saracens 3; Saracens 33 Munster 10 2016-17 – Semi-final in Dublin: Munster 10 Saracens 26 2018-19 – Semi-final in Coventry: Saracens 32 Munster 16 2019-20 – Pool: Munster 10 Saracens 3; Saracens 15 Munster 6For Munster on Saturday, Lions hopefuls Jack Crowley and Tadhg Beirne start, but Peter O’Mahony has a calf injury.
In the most recent of the Irish side’s 11 meetings with Saracens, in December 2019, a touchline brawl involving most of the 30 players was sparked by a Munster medic’s remark to George.
With Castres coming to Saracens in the final round next weekend, McCall believes winning the group would bring a home tie in both the last 16 and quarter-finals, while finishing second would probably mean an away game in the quarters.
“It used to be a fair competition,” McCall said. “Because you played everyone home and away and then the best team in the group got through, whereas now it’s not as straightforward as that; they changed it to create an extra week in the season.
“The double-header in the pool used to be something I loved, so that part of the competition is not as good as it was. We played Munster back to back in the pool [in 2012 and 2019] and it was class, go to Thomond Park, lose, come here, beat them; they were feisty matches, something great.
“So I think the competition is clunky. But once it gets to the sharp end, it’s as good as ever been.”
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