Saracens boss Mark McCall angry over late finish to England's Test season
Monday 12 December 2016 09:58, UK
Saracens boss Mark McCall has criticised the late finish to England's autumn international campaign.
But that game came a week later than the final fixtures played by Wales, Ireland and Scotland and left England's players to go straight back into European Champions Cup action seven days later.
Saracens had little trouble in beating Sale 50-3 on Saturday, with George Kruis, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Owen Farrell all featuring, but McCall still feels English clubs could have been put at a disadvantage.
"For me it's ludicrous that the fourth international shouldn't be at the start of the window rather than the end. It's not fair on the Premiership clubs," McCall said.
"You're asking players to go again in the Champions Cup the weekend after they've played Australia.
"Ireland, Scotland and Wales were able to rest some of their players and you've maybe seen that in some of the other results this weekend - the wins by Munster and Leinster for example.
"We're incredibly fortunate that we've got the players to whom it means a lot to play for Saracens. They were magnificent, all of them.
"But I still don't think it's right that you continuously have to ask them to back up. In the long run, there shouldn't be a fourth international before a European match."
Kruis missed some of England's autumn series with an ankle injury and said his international colleagues had taken things a little easier at times during the week.
"I'd say we get a lot of energy from coming back and looking at how hard the boys have worked," Kruis said.
"They're putting big shifts in, when you lose a few players and you've got some injuries as well. When we come back, we've got to repay that favour.
"We were smart in how we dealt with training this week. We cut the week a bit shorter. But you do reach some emotional highs playing in these big games. The coaching team understand that and gave us an extra day off as well."
