Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall praised his side's performance despite their 24-14 defeat to Clermont Auvergne.
Stevens may make his Sarries debut next week
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall praised his side's performance despite their 24-14 Heineken Cup defeat to Clermont Auvergne at Vicarage Road.
Saracens have lost five of their six games in Pool 2 and McCall believes the Aviva Premiership salary cap is proving a major hindrance, while he also questioned the way Magners League teams qualify for the competition.
He said: "We have a number of injuries at the moment so I was very proud of the performance and particularly the young academy boys who've come through this season.
"The situation with the Heineken Cup is a difficult one because the English and French clubs have to compete very strongly to qualify, whereas the eight or nine in the Magners League go straight through.
"It is not a level playing field, particularly when you include the gap that exists between English and French clubs in terms of squad size and you then compare our salary cap with theirs.
"It's very difficult to compete against a team, for example, with Clermont's resources.
"I'd love to have had a full deck available for some of these Heineken Cup games but it hasn't been possible.
"Last weekend against Leinster we were well beaten by a better team, but in the other four defeats we've had chances and we've simply not been as clinical as our opponents in terms of finishing.
"The 10-point margin in this defeat looks like we lost convincingly, but we were actually the better team for periods but their second try before half-time was a killer blow.
Learning experience
"Overall it's been a huge learning experience for a number of our lads, which in itself is very valuable."
Meanwhile, McCall also revealed that new signing Matt Stevens could be handed a first-team debut in next weekend's LV=Cup clash against the Scarlets in Wales.
McCall said: "It is possible that Matt could make his first-team debut in the LV= Cup in Wales on Saturday, depending on how he fares on Monday night in what will be his first game of rugby in two years."
