Saracens fortify European aristocracy with Murrayfield masterclass | Robert Kitson


How British & Irish Lions could use magic of a team orchestrated by their coach Mark McCall to produce stunning, incisive finishing

Everyone talks about winning being a habit. In rugby it is more complicated than that: nothing comes easy and conquering Everest always has to be done the hard way. Not so long ago Saracens were a team – and a club – with recurring altitude sickness; these days, in Europe particularly, they are the high and mighty masters of all they survey.

Two successive European crowns certainly elevates them to select status. Only Leicester, Leinster and Toulon have won back-to-back titles and no one has ever stayed unbeaten for 18 games on the trot. If Toulon are the only side to have achieved the hat-trick between 2013-2015, they required far more galacticos than Saracens possess. Winning glittering prizes with one’s own home-polished diamonds against rock-hard French opposition is the rarest trick of all.

Related: Alex Goode try seals Champions Cup final victory for Saracens over Clermont

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