The start and end of Saracens’ season involved a last-minute try at Twickenham but, whereas Chris Ashton’s against London Irish back in September sealed a bonus-point victory, Alex Waller’s in the 101st minute of the Premiership final plundered victory and a first title for Northampton.
Saracens, the pace-setters for most of the season, were left with nothing to hold aloft after losing two finals in the space of eight days. The most consistent team in Europe over nine months were left distraught, unable to raise their game even higher on two one-off occasions.
There will always be something unsatisfactory about a league title being decided by a cup final because the disciplines of league and cup rugby are vastly different, the one an endurance test and the other a sprint. Saracens did not have enough in their legs against either Toulon or Northampton to break the tape.
The play-off system will not change, not least because the final again attracted a crowd of more than 80,000, but its basic premise that it is the fairest way to determine the best team over the course of a season, because clubs lose their England players for three months of it, will become more suspect the longer Saracens, Northampton, Leicester and Harlequins hog the top four places.
The team that finish at the top of the table at the end of the regular season should be presented with a trophy at the very least but the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, was left clutching silver linings rather than silverware as he and his players made their dejected way out of HQ, vowing to be stronger for the pain they were experiencing. They have not yet, though, made any heavyweight signings and they lack complementary options in midfield.
“I know this group of players and, while the end of the season has been painful, it is not a setback: that only occurs if you grow less tight together and lose your hunger,” said McCall. “We have made massive strides forward in the last 12 months and we said five years ago that our aim was to play in big matches: this was our fourth final since 2010 and we will kick on from this.”
Saracens were aggrieved that a number of big decisions, especially those of the television match official, Graham Hughes, went against them and, while McCall said he was not sure that his players had got what they deserved when Waller’s try was allowed after numerous replays and the opinion at one point of the referee, JP Doyle, that he had not seen enough evidence to award a score, Saracens were outscored in the two finals by five tries to one: what had worked in the regular season did not work any more.
“To lose at the death was devastating, but I could not be more proud of the players,” said McCall. “The performance was full of quality at times and they showed great courage to keep coming back. We are a really healthy club: people can talk about trophies but it is about moving forward. We played in two finals in a week and it has been a brilliant season for us. We are interested in two competitions, Europe and the Premiership, and we have gone all the way in both. Yes, it was a disappointing way to finish but we are incredibly strong as a club.”
No Saracens players were made available to the media after the match. Some who were not expecting to be called up by England left for Bermuda the morning after. The men in black had a mood to match but they will start again here in September as still the team to beat.
