Saturday 23 April 2016 20:38, UK
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was delighted with his team's 24-17 victory over Wasps on Saturday which earned them a spot in next month's European Champions Cup final.
It will be the team's second final appearance in three seasons, having lost to Toulon in 2014. They will now face either Leicester or Racing 92 in Lyon on May 14 and McCall said: "I thought we were brilliant today.
"We were physical and intelligent in the way we played the game but we couldn't get away on the scoreboard.
"We knew our set-piece was going to be important. Our scrum was outstanding all the way through the game and our defensive line-out was outstanding too. It was a great effort by the forwards but a great effort by everybody.
"There were times today when we could have got a little bit frustrated, obviously after one minute when you are seven points behind. But we felt we dominated the rest of the half."
And their skipper Brad Barritt added: "We haven't won anything yet. There is still this hunger and desire within this team. We now have a final to look forward to and prepare for.
"The pleasing thing with this team is the resilience. The things we speak about at length but more importantly put into practice.
"There are guys who are leading in their own departments and are making a stand and helping and coaching each other off the ball. The resilience within the squad is huge.
"Winning the European Champions Cup has been a driving force for us for five seasons now.
"We've slowly edged our way closer and closer. We've gone from qualifying to a quarter-final, two semi-finals and a final.
"It would be the icing on the cake to lift the trophy but we are not there yet and we are not going to talk about it until it happens."
Wasps' rugby director Dai Young added: "They had a bit of a stranglehold on us in the first half, and you have got to give them a lot of credit. We struggled to break their defence down but we kept on playing.
"We have come a long way in a relatively short space of time and maybe their experience over the last couple of years in some big semi-finals perhaps gave them a little bit of an edge."
And Wasps captain James Haskell went on: "When you play a game like that, you get the initial disappointment but we gave it everything we had.
"Credit to Saracens, they are a team that plays that strangling rugby a lot of the time and it is very difficult to make inroads. When we did, we looked very dangerous."
