The last team to beat Saracens in the European Champions Cup, Clermont Auvergne, will meet them in the final next month. After the French club’s victory over Leinster in the semi‑final in Lyon on Sunday a local journalist became rather more lyrical than the Premiership and European champions are known to be. “Saracens, their surgical rugby, shadows and blood, charcoal and demons, await at the corner of Murrayfield where many ghosts prowl,” he wrote. “But is it not the best place for an exorcism?”
The final certainly promises to be exercising for Clermont, whose England wing David Strettle knows the key to his former club’s success. He was on the Saracens bench in the Saint-Étienne semi-final two years ago, coming on for the last seven minutes of the 13-9 defeat, and since then his former club have equalled Leinster’s record of 17 successive matches in the tournament without defeat.
Related: Vunipola brothers keep good times rolling as Saracens aim for glory
Related: Warren Gatland’s Lions stock up for brutal schedule in New Zealand
Continue reading...