Venter finds room for improvement

Saracens rugby director Brendan Venter admitted he was less than thrilled by his team's performance despite a well deserved 26-20 victory over Leicester - the team who pipped them for the Premiership title at Twickenham last May.

Having battered Leicester to the brink of collapse Saracens failed to put them away and ended up defending for their lives for a victory that looked a formality with 25 minutes to go.

Venter said: "I'm a bit deflated to be honest because we should have had them and finished the job much earlier. Leicester were conceding penalties because we had the ball for sustained periods but we butchered a couple of sitters.

He continued: "We must learn to put teams away when we have outplayed them as much as we outplayed Leicester. I've told my guys that they are a much better team than they think. It's a matter of confidence but they must accept that last season was based on merit and we are getting better.

"If Leicester had been in that situation they would have come away with a winning bonus point for four tries and if you look at the league table they're always up there among the teams who get the most bonus points.

"They had a very difficult day here but yet they leave with a bonus point so I'm not very impressed about a 26-20 scoreline to the way we played."

Leicester rugby director David Cockerill said he was proud of the way his players came back from what looked like a potential hiding.

Cockerill said: "I'm very pleased at how we reacted, the players showed great spirit, especially when we had guys in the sin-bin.

"It was difficult out there because Saracens got it right when we were a man short and played to the corners - but our boys never gave up.

"I thought we had a team to win this game but having seen it I'll take that losing bonus point. We have a number of players missing and we've played Northampton, Wasps and Saracens - so when everyone comes back I'm convinced we will get better."