Last year's pain fired us, says Saracens' McCall
By Mitch Phillips LONDON (Reuters) - Losing two huge finals in a week last season fuelled Saracens with unquenchable desire to go one step further this year, coach Mark McCall said after Saturday's 28-16 demolition of Bath in the Premiership final completed a hugely satisfying double. Last May, Saracens were beaten by Toulon in the European Cup final then lost to Northampton in the last seconds of extra time in the Premiership decider. Now, having already secured the LV Cup, they are also English champions for the second time, becoming the first team to take the title having finished outside the top two in the regular season. "Last year was painful. Those defeats are always in the back of your mind and people deal with it in different ways," McCall said after his team blew away a Bath team who had run seven tries past Leicester in the semi-finals. "We were very clear that we were owed nothing because of the way it ended last year. We had to deserve it and earn it." Saracens snatched the fourth and last playoff slot on the last day of the season, having topped the standings in the previous two campaigns and McCall said they had to scrap every step of the way. "We've tried to be front runners for last couple of seasons," he said. "This has been a different kind of journey for us and we've had to fight hard. "We've had a couple of mini-slumps but we were confident we could put a winning run together." Saturday's final was effectively over after half an hour as tries by Owen Farrell, Jamie George and Chris Wyles had the London side 22-3 ahead with Bath barely having touched the ball. "To perform the way we did in the first half was exceptional," he said. "Bath were always going to come back in the second half and we had to fight hard to contain their attack." For Bath, appearing in the final for the first time in 11 years, it was a massive anti-climax after a season full of spectacular running rugby and notable wins. "It's hugely disappointing but we need to make sure that we realise that it was not a wasted year. We worked hard and got to this point but we didn't really do ourselves justice," said captain Stuart Hooper, who accepted his team had been second-best all afternoon. (Editing by Ian Chadband)
