Saracens will take on French powerhouses Toulouse on Sunday fresh from a blunt review of their “incredibly disappointing” loss to Leicester, with director of rugby Mark McCall challenging his side to “do their talking on the pitch”.
Saracens suffered a serious setback in their pursuit of a top-four Prem finish, conceding four first-half tries en route to a 36-28 defeat at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday.
“When, emotionally, you’re not ready for a big game – which we clearly weren’t – it’s hugely frustrating and disappointing,” said McCall.
“In the end that falls on me, and we’ve got to do something about it.
“I don’t want to tell you guys what’s happened over the last 24, 36 hours, but rest assured that we’ve called a spade a spade and we’ve been honest with everybody and everyone’s been honest with us.
“We’ve confronted what was wrong. There’s not much to say really, so we’ve just got to go and do. It’s time to do our talking on the field.”
Toulouse, who have won the Champions Cup a record six times, rested most of their stars for their most recent league match, with the likes of Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Anthony Jelonch and Jack Willis all set to feature at a sold-out StoneX Stadium.
After defeat by Glasgow in the second round, the three-time reigning French champions are chasing to ensure a home draw in the last 16.
McCall has taken inspiration and advice from Toulouse as he attempts to forge another title-winning dynasty from a crop of exciting young players.
The French club’s coaches visited Saracens last March as part of a knowledge-sharing initiative.
“We played a round-robin game in the Champions Cup there in 2016 and we won quite easily and the stadium was half empty,” remembers McCall.
“Their solution was to build from within. They knew they had a crop of youngsters who were 18, 19, 20, 21 at the time, who are all in their late 20s, early 30s now, who’ve led the club over the last 10 years.
“It was communicated to the public and the fans and everybody was on board with this build-from-within project at Toulouse.
“So I learned a lot around that. Building a young team takes a bit of time and people need to be patient.”
