Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall praised his England hopefuls after his side's 19-11 victory over Harlequins.
O'Shea laments his side's error-strewn performance in the first half
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall praised his England hopefuls after his side's 19-11 victory over Harlequins at Twickenham.
Owen Farrell further enhanced his claims for an international call-up with a 14-point haul with the boot, including converting David Strettle's first-half try.
Flanker Andy Saull, playing in place of the injured Jacques Burger, and centre Brad Barritt also impressed, as the pair helped Sarries put an end to Quins' perfect record in the Aviva Premiership this season.
McCall hopes England national coach Stuart Lancaster took note of the quartet ahead of naming a 32-man squad for the RBS Six Nations on January 11.
Magnificent
"I thought Andy Saull was absolutely magnificent and from an England perspective I thought a lot of our young, English players really made a good impression today," McCall said.
"Brad Barritt, who is just getting better and better, Owen Farrell again and Alex Goode who has really come into form in the last month or so.
"Ben Spencer (the scrum-half) really helped to close the game out and (lock) Mouritz Botha did well when he came on too.
"Hopefully they (the England coaches) will take notice and I'm sure some of the Quins players have put themselves forward as well.
"Charlie Hodgson can't be forgotten either - some of his long passes today were outstanding and I don't think anyone else in England can pass the ball like him."
Saracens scored all their points in the opening 25 minutes of a match played out in front of a world-record crowd of 82,000. The result means they are now five points adrift of their capital rivals in the table.
"That was a brilliant result for us and a good performance in two contrasting halves," McCall said on the game itself.
"We were in control in the first half but in the second half Quins showed why they are top of the league.
"They played scintillating, off-loading rugby and we had to be at our very, very best to stop them. We scrambled really well and we had to.
"We have won four games in a row and this win was against the top side in the league. We put everything into that match and there are a lot of battered bodies now.
"Quins are still ahead of us in the table so it was good that we were able to deny them a bonus point which they probably deserved."
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea was also quick to heap praise on young centre Farrell, who did not miss a shot at goal.
Six years ago, O'Shea was in charge of identifying the next generation of England stars and Farrell has been on his radar since he was just 14.
"I am sure he will be a cornerstone for England for a long time," O'Shea said.
"I saw him at Loughborough in a training camp when he was 14 and it was an under-18 camp and he ran the show.
"He's an outstanding player."
Error-strewn start
As for the match, O'Shea was left to rue his side's error-strewn start as their perfect run in domestic action came to an end in their 11th outing.
Joe Marler did score a try in the second half but Quins had simply left themselves too much to do after trailing 19-6 at the break.
"To give a lead like that to the Premiership champions was going to be difficult to claw back," he added.
"Our guys fought tooth and nail to get back into it and tried to play as much rugby as we could.
"When you look back you will probably see three opportunities we didn't take. At this level you have to take them."
