Late defeat leaves Saracens facing a first play-off absence since 2009
SARACENS boss Mark McCall blasted his team’s defensive fragility after yesterday’s home defeat to Exeter pushed them to the brink of missing the Premiership play-offs for the first time in six years.
A late try from No8 Thomas Waldrom gave the Chiefs a 24-20 win and lifted them above Sarries into fourth place. The result means McCall’s men, who topped the table last season, could muster a bonus-point victory over London Welsh in next weekend’s final round of fixtures and still fail to progress to the play-offs.
“To let them score three tries, and in the manner that they scored them just isn’t good enough. Every one of them felt like a slow death and inevitable,” he said.
“You never know what can happen in the last game of the season. We’ve got to plan to beat London Welsh, and beat them by four tries and to make it as big a margin as we can. What happens elsewhere is out our hands. We are now in that situation.”
Saracens led twice, through Chris Ashton and Chris Wyles tries, but were pegged back when Luke Cowan-Dickie and then Waldrom went over in reply. An Owen Farrell penalty looked to have settled the contest but Waldrom had the final say with his second try.