Saracens are accustomed to consistent success but, even by their high standards, their fourth Premiership title in seven years was particularly sweet. In the bright sunshine of May it is easy to overlook their dark midwinter sequence of seven consecutive defeats and disruptive injuries to key players. To bounce back and crush a team of Exeter’s calibre is a serious achievement.
Even Mark McCall, their seasoned director of rugby, rated it as “special” and a fitting farewell to the retiring Schalk Brits and Chris Wyles. Not only did his side deliver the most relentless defensive masterclass seen in a Twickenham final but the big names supposedly crawling to the end of a demanding season all played out of their skins. If Mako Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell and Jamie George can maintain similar intensity levels next month in South Africa, Eddie Jones’s England will be more than competitive.
Vunipola, in particular, was such a forceful presence it mattered little that his brother Billy is still only edging back to full fitness. While McCall was grateful to all his English international contingent – “Given they were on a Lions tour and played rugby until the middle of July it is amazing they played as well as they played today” – he believes no other loosehead prop in the world can beat Mako’s compelling mix of brawn and brain.
Saracens beat Exeter 27-10 to win Premiership final – as it happened
“Mako is incredible. He is one of the smartest rugby brains I’ve ever come across and can see things that fly-halves don’t see. Mako understands the game incredibly well and is an incredibly smart guy. I’m sure Eddie will use him from a leadership point of view on tour.”
Not all of this is obvious at first glance. As McCall rightly observed, Vunipola “wouldn’t win prizes for body language” but he and his team‑mates tend to display remarkable inner strength on occasions such as this. They were not even ruffled when Exeter starved them almost entirely of possession for the first 10 minutes, finding a range of ways to outflank the Chiefs’ familiar modus operandi and finishing like a team with plenty still in reserve.
If it helped that, unlike last season, they did not have to contend with the distraction and physical toll of a European final, the manner in which they have swept aside Wasps and Exeter in the past two weeks is a major tribute to the club’s conditioning staff, led by Phil Morrow. At a time when England are looking for a defence coach with a proven track record on high-profile occasions, this was also a decent advert for Alex Sanderson’s abilities in that department.
In retrospect it is a pity that Saracens and Leinster, the two best sides in Britain and Ireland this season, are not meeting now; McCall’s players were not remotely as sharp two months ago as they now appear. The two sides share a lot of similarities – outstanding forwards, top-class fly-halves, unyielding defences – and neither look in danger of fading away in the foreseeable future. “We have a group of leaders that meet every Monday,” McCall said. “There’s about 10 of them, seven of whom are 27 or under. They’re only going to get better. Hopefully they’ll take the club forward for a long time to come.”
Exeter come up short on the day but the future is theirs to shape | Michael Aylwin
With Alex Goode still oozing class at full-back, Liam Williams unavailable for the season’s closing games and David Strettle on his way back to the club from Clermont, it is now up to their rivals to locate some kind of antidote. Even Exeter, who finished top of the regular season table, will now have to go away and ponder some uncomfortable truths. The Chiefs also possess a young squad with significant ongoing potential growth but will need to add some extra variation to their game to prosper consistently against Europe’s very best.
In a contest which stirred memories of the 2016 final between the same clubs, Farrell’s clever kicking game and Saracens’ relentless line speed frequently left their opponents nowhere to go. Even had Henry Slade not missed a costly touch from a penalty on halfway, which could easily have yielded a close-range driven lineout and a double-digit lead, the outcome would have been the same. While Brits and Wyles, who signed off with two of his side’s four tries, enjoyed the happiest of endings, there was no fairytale finish for Thomas Waldrom or Lachie Turner, both wearing a Chiefs jersey for the final time.
Exeter will come back stronger because they always do. Those who find them boring to watch are underestimating their basic skill levels; with more impact in a couple of positions they will become even more of a handful. At the weekend it was just their misfortune to run into a good team as impressively dominant at Twickenham as they have been since Clermont Auvergne were shredded 46-6 in the semi-final of the European Champions Cup in 2014. It is strange to think that only last December Clermont were making Saracens look similarly ordinary in snowy Barnet. The moral of the 2017-18 Premiership season? Form is temporary, class is permanent.