McCall admits Sarries were second best to ‘outstanding’ Saints

Northampton marched to a stunning 41-20 success in the top-of-the-table clash, slaying Sarries, who had won their opening five Aviva Premiership games, with ruthless ease.

The home team got on top from the off, going in at half-time 17-6 up thanks to eye-catching scores from Jamie Elliott and Samu Manoa.

And they maintained their impressive performance after the break, running in four more tries to make it 19 scores in just four home games this season.

The victory was built on a solid set piece that allowed the stellar names in the backline to play and McCall was impressed by the opposition.

“I thought they were outstanding today,” he said. “You know when you come down here you’ve got to get the foundations of your game right and their set piece was well on top.

“A lot of the pressure that came from them started there.

“We were beaten in every area by a Saints team who were red-hot, but we didn’t help ourselves.

“They are no excuses from us. We were confident we could come here and put in a much better showing than we did.

“Our set piece was poor, we gave some long-range tries away, they scored too easily and it proved really costly.”