Saturday 9 July 2016 12:10, UK
Saracens flanker Jackson Wray insists a European and domestic double is just the start for the club.
The north London side had a momentous season last campaign, securing both the Aviva Premiership and Champions Cup titles and becoming the first side to go unbeaten in the European competition's history in the process.
However, as a fresh chapter starts for Mark McCall's men, Wray is adamant that his side's success will not dampen their hunger to add further honours.
"Obviously last year was a pretty special one for myself and the squad and sometimes you can almost think that you look back at the double and ask 'what next?'," said Wray. "For us it is about repeat success, it is only really the beginning for this group.
"When you look around and see the players that are in the group at the minute, we only really want to go and do that again to be honest and have that feeling of success again and that back-to-back. It has given us the hunger to go on and want to do it again to be honest.
"I think the togetherness and what we showed last year has only really been strengthened by what we did. That's how we are looking at it, we want to do it again, back-to-back, and look to better it if we can."
Club success has been emulated on the international stage for a number of the Saracens squad, with eight players going on to achieve a Six Nations title alongside a 3-0 series win in Australia with England, including Wray's fellow academy graduates Owen Farrell, Jamie George and European Player of the Year Maro Itoje.
For Wray, the success of such players and their return from international duty helped spur on those who remained at the club to a historic double.
"It's brilliant," the 25-year-old added when speaking of his team-mates' England success. "They came back from the Six Nations after being very successful and showed the whole of Europe the level they need to play at and they obviously carried it on over the summer.
"For us, those guys were coming back revitalised from a great campaign over the Six Nations and that brought success back with them. It gave us a buzz and a bit of an extra push towards the end of the year and that was brilliant.
"I think the guys that came back brought that winning mentality with them and it helped us go on and improve even further at the end of last year and it paid off and that's part of the reason why we were successful at the end of the season."
Despite the squad's hunger to emulate their success in the new season, Wray is under no illusions of the challenges that lay ahead of them and believes Saracens will have to improve in order to achieve their goals.
"I think when you look at it now, the number of teams in the league that are of a high level - it's not quite the same as it was maybe four of five years ago when you looked at the big teams and the big games. But now you look around and you've got your Exeter, Leicester, Northampton, Quins, Bath, you've got all the big teams.
"Then you look at teams like Sale - away to Sale is an unbelievably tough game whenever you play them. There are no games in the league now which are seen as so-called easier games, every game is a hard game. That's testament to the league and the teams that are in it. Every year it gets tougher.
"Teams always raise their level against us, which is fine by us, we have to raise our level every week and that is our aim. I don't think it changes too much, teams are always coming to give everything against us, it's just the way it seems to pan out.
"I have no doubt we will have to raise our game this year I think everyone is aware of that. We need to improve on our performances from last year, because what was good enough last year probably won't be good enough this year and that's throughout Europe and domestically.
"We are fully aware of what we want to try and do and where we want to take the game and hopefully we can work on that over the summer and then we will be where we want to be come the start of the season."
