Mark McCall confident Saracens can still keep European Champions Cup dream alive

Mark McCall insists Saracens can still reach the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup after his side’s improved performance in a 24-21 defeat by Clermont Auvergne — their seventh successive loss.

But the club’s director of rugby will be demanding improved discipline from his men if they are to maintain their bid to successfully defend the trophy they have won for the past two seasons.

Sarries are seven points behind Pool Two leaders Clermont and trail Ospreys by two but McCall said: “We all know that we’re going to get through this patch, whether it’s next week at Leicester or the week after against Worcester. We’ve got a good chance in the last two [European] games to get ourselves into a qualifying position for the knockout phases of the Champions Cup.

“We want to get into the top four in the Premiership as well — and to have a chance of doing that, we’ll get through this little period. It’s not about outcomes, it’s about how it felt and looked; there was support on the field and they backed each other. That doesn’t mean we’ll get the same thing next week, we’ve got to work hard and look to improve. We’ve got to make it happen again next Sunday at Welford Road.”

Sarries’ penalty count and two yellow cards seriously undermined their challenge on Sunday. Clermont kicked eight of the 17 penalties the champions conceded for victory, and those individual errors effectively scrubbed out their two tries, by Ben Spencer and Alex Lozowski.

Having been hammered 46-14 six days earlier by the French champions, Sarries showed commitment and battled hard in one of the most hostile atmospheres in world rugby, but their self-discipline was poor.

In addition to the 7-17 penalty count, Sarries had Juan Figallo and Will Skelton sent to the sin bin. The visitors recorded 26 missed tackles, following on from the 38 racked up in the home tie.

The return of captain Brad Barritt after concussion for the Christmas Eve Premiership match at Leicester, and the expectation that both Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola will be fit by the time the remaining Champions Cup pool games against Ospreys and Northampton are played in the middle of January are reasons for McCall’s optimism.

Lions wing Liam Williams and flanker Michael Rhodes are also on the road to recovery, to ease the current problems in a squad ravaged by injuries to key players.

England prop Kyle Sinckler picked up a yellow card as Harlequins suffered a 52-24 loss to Ulster in Belfast on Friday, a defeat which leaves them winless after four Champions Cup pool games.

A Tony Ensor try denied London Irish a much needed victory in European Challenge Cup Pool Four on Saturday against Stade Francais, who won 26-20.