A relieved Alan Gaffney praised Saracens' comeback to avoid a shock defeat at Viadana.
Gaffney praises troops after Saracens come back from the dead.
A relieved Saracens director of rugby Alan Gaffney praised his side's remarkable second half comeback that saved them from a shock defeat at Viadana.
Saracens had to recover from 26-3 down at half-time to secure a Heineken Cup Pool Four victory in Viadana.
Saracens notched 31 unanswered second half points to finally run claim a 26-34 win - much to the relief of Gaffney who had warned all week that his side faced a tough afternoon in Northern Italy.
"A lot of people may not have believed me when I said we would face a difficult game here this afternoon - especially after our comprehensive victory last week," said Gaffney.
"But they brought back most of their international players and I've been to Italy enough times with various sides and only just escaped with a win.
"I'll leave the decision for other people to make up their minds as to whether we deserved to win today, because they dominated the first half and we dominated after the break.
"Either way, we came here to win the game and that's what we have done - although clearly we are not happy with a number of areas of our game."
Calm
Gaffney says his side were able to come back from the dead as they kept calm despite trailing by so far at the break.
"I thought the team was superbly led by Neil de Kock in the second half," Gaffney added.
"We didn't panic and took the penalties when we needed to instead of trying to chase the game. We clawed our way back and showed tremendous composure to get back into the match.
"Clearly, I wasn't a happy man at half-time but there was no point ranting or raving.
"In years gone by this side would probably have folded in the second half but it showed superb character to come back and we can be proud of that.
"Now we go into the final rounds of the competition in an excellent position at the top of the group.
"But we won't be letting the win disguise the fact that we were very poor in the first half - we won't be hiding from that."
