Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Can Saracens exploit scars of 2014?

The two stand-out performances in European Cup history have both come within the last 12 months and on Saturday the two teams responsible meet in a semi-final showdown with a difference at the somewhat unlikely venue of Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in the rugby backwater of St Etienne.
This time last year Saracens despatched mighty Clermont 46-6 in that never to be forgotten Twickenham semi-final with a predatory display the like of which we had never seen before.
Until last week, that is, when a rejuvenated Clermont made Premiership leaders Northampton look second-raters at Stade Michelin en route to a 37-5 win, a victory that was both crushing and exquisite in the same instant.
There are so many nuances to enjoy on Saturday aside from the usual stress and tension of trying to secure a place in the final of Europe’s Premier club competition.
There is the perennial T14-Premiership rivalry and the fact that both clubs are as hungry and edgy as hell having never won the tournament. There is also a back catalogue and gathering rivalry that comes from having met no fewer than six times previously in the European Cup in the last five years. Clermont lead that series 4-2 and although honours were even with one win apiece in this season’s ‘pool of death’, from which they both escaped, it is that 46-6 scoreline from last year that still dominates the landscape.
Well it certainly does for the passionate Clermont fans who won’t consider it properly avenged until they have beaten Saracens in a like-for-like sudden death encounter. A shadow boxing pool win doesn’t quite do the trick.
As for Saracens, what does Mako Vunipola make of that extraordinary game at Twickenham last year and how will it play out, if at all, 12 months on?
“There was a general buzz around the team at Twickenham last year,” recalls the England and Lions prop. “There wasn’t a lot said beforehand but the first couple of hits got us straight into our game and we just thrived on it. We fed off that.
“We had some boys who stood up and played some massive games – Jacques Burger got man of the match but there were a couple of boys like that – Schalk Brits and Steve Borthwick. They laid their bodies on the line really and I found it easy to feed off that.
“It was one of those games when everything ‘stuck’, a bit like Clermont against Northampton last week. There were a few chances for them early on and we got a couple of fortuitous tries and on the day the bounce of the ball went our way.
“As a player you can never ‘expect’ to produce a performance like that against Clermont. You would never think or dream of putting 40 points on a team like that.
“As the game wore on, when Chris Ashton got his second try on the hour, we suddenly realised how well we were playing. And I think they could feel that as well. Even when they got in our 22 they would make a mistake or we would turn them over. We just fed off that energy all day.”
Vunipola believes the legacy of that defeat will be in what Clermont learned that day: “When you get put to the sword like that it’s very tough to forget but two years before it was them who came over and did a job on us in our own backyard in the quarter-final.
“We lost 22-3 and just never got into the game. We had to learn our lessons from that game and that’s what we put into last year’s semi-final.
“The pool stages this season probably have more relevance to the semi-final this time around. They are a different team with a new coach and some new players. You can see the impact Nick Abendanon has had for them and you can add Jonathan Davies to that as well.”
It’s been a long hard season for Saracens, in fact coach Mark McCall with refreshing candour, described it as a bit of a slog last week. In parts they have been exceptional but in other games Sarries have fallen a little short. Injuries and international calls have not helped at all and in fact they went the whole of November without a win.
With a fine sense of timing, though, they seem to be coming to the boil at the business end of the season and after a long spell on the touchlines following a knee reconstruction Mako is one of the fresher players who could help set the tone for the remainder of the season.
“The hardest bit for me was when I was off injured watching it. You can’t do anything but I think we are getting there, getting a bit of momentum. We pride ourselves with being good friends on and off the pitch and that culture is coming through now, everybody is fighting for every extra inch for each other.
“We are trying to stick to our systems and just enjoy the way we play. In terms of Europe this year we definitely feel we’ve been underdogs all year and that has worked out in our favour.”
A fully-fit Mako, along with brother Billy, is always going to be a big plus for Saracens and he’s been delighted with his younger brother’s storming form since the turn of the year after the No.8 had lost his England place in the autumn.
“It was tough, watching him and not being involved,” says Mako who still shares a house with Billy in St Albans. “I was seeing it from a different light to everybody else and I was feeling sorry for him.
“I couldn’t be any more proud how Billy went in the Six Nations, how he bounced back from all the talk and setbacks. If he can carry on that way it’ll be great for us as a club and England, too.”