Alan Gaffney has hailed the impact of Andy Farrell as Saracens qualified for the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals despite losing to Llanelli.
Sarries chiefs hails the impact of former rugby league international
Saracens director of rugby Alan Gaffney has hailed the impact of Andy Farrell as his side qualified for the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals despite a 36-32 defeat to Llanelli Scarlets.
Farrell came off the bench in the 56th minute with Sarries trailing 33-14 and seemingly on their way out of the competition.
However, Farrell added two penalties and a conversion, while he helped Saracens pick up two further tries to add to their two earlier efforts.
This meant Gaffney's side were able to pick up two bonus points to snatch a place in the last four.
And Gaffney singled out the contribution of Farrell for seeing the Londoners through.
He said: "Andy Farrell showed a lot of direction when he came on.
Pressure
"We didn't need to play helter-skelter catch-up rugby and once we started kicking to the corners and forced the Scarlets to play out of their 22, that's where the pressure came and we started to get on top in the last 20 minutes.
"Andy is a very cool-headed player. Gordon Ross and Glen Jackson are good players in their own right but we need to have options at 10 and it was good to see Andy have some time there.
"Kevin Sorrell, our captain for the day, was fully aware that after we got the fourth try we needed to get within seven to get us through.
"To get to the semi-finals is a huge bonus for the club.
"We left a number of forwards at home. We could have seven changes for next week's game against Viadana. The good thing is we have a bit of depth."
The Scarlets may have won the game, however they were frustrated by their failure to prevent Sarries pipping them to the knockout stages.
Frustrating
Captain Simon Easterby said: "We were 16-7 up at half-time and played some good stuff at the start of the second half.
"We have got to take the positives out of that but unfortunately we conceded too many points again. In the end we let them back in the game and it is definitely frustrating we didn't win by more than seven when we were 33-14 up. We should have nailed them but we didn't do that.
"A couple of decisions went against us (in the final quarter) rightly or wrongly. The second penalty try we felt the scrum had turned 90 degrees.
"And a couple of lapses in defence got them back into the game.
"Although we won the game we didn't achieve what we had set out to, and that was to make the semi-finals.
"I don't know what it was like to watch but it was certainly an enjoyable game to play in."
