Opposition view: McCall salutes Saracens for first-half showing against Saints
Saracens boss Mark McCall hailed his side's first-half performance against Saints as 'probably the best 40 minutes we’ve had for a long time'.
McCall's men flew into a 24-0 half-time lead in windy conditions at StoneX Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Saints hit back with four tries after the break, but they were still well beaten, taking just a try bonus point from a 39-24 Gallagher Premiership defeat.
And McCall said: “The first-half performance was outstanding, especially when we were playing into the gale.
“It’s probably the best 40 minutes we’ve had for a long time as everything we did was smart.
“However, the second half was frustrating as we went a bit individual and it cost us, and you can’t do that against a side as good as Northampton.
“Our half-backs Fergus (Burke) and Ivan (van Zyl) used the ball very well and were really smart as it was taxing for them being up against England squad half-backs.
“We’ve got some tough fixtures coming up against Bath and Bristol and we’ll need to rotate our squad as we want to do well in Europe as well, but the Premiership is unrelenting as a side as good as Saints are presently eighth and I’m sure that’s not where they want to be.”