Opposition view: McCall salutes Saracens for showing 'resilience and fight' against Saints

McCall opted to rest many of his star men following the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final defeat at La Rochelle six days earlier.

But Gallagher Premiership table-toppers Saracens raced into a 10-0 lead at a sold-out cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens before eventually suffering defeat.

Saracens were reduced to 14 men early on due to a Duncan Taylor red card so the fact they still managed to push Saints close pleased McCall.

“We were in the fortunate position of being able to rest a number of players so the outcome of the game wasn’t of major importance," McCall said.

“We showed a considerable amount of resilience and fight against a fully-loaded opposition before a big crowd.

“The sending off made the game even tougher for the youngsters but it also added to the experience for them.

“We made a mistake in not going seven and seven when we lost a player as we gave them too much space with only six defenders behind the scrum and it certainly improved when we made the change.

“Northampton are a very dangerous team if they click and when they get it right are certainly hard to handle.”