Austerberry adamant Saracens Women will be back stronger than ever after Premier 15s defeat

Alex Austerberry said his side showed enormous heart in the Allianz Premier 15s Final to get back in to the match, and is confident that they will return to the biggest stage after describing them as the most impressive people he has worked with.

Amy Cokayne scored twice and Lagilagi Tuima kicked five penalties to put Harlequins ahead on several occasions, but the Women in Black remained in the game.

After the break, Sarries forced two Harlequins yellow cards, Marlie Packer scored twice and Sophie de Goede crossed the whitewash, but it was not enough to complete a stunning comeback.

“It’s more than bottle its heart, it’s exactly what the group’s about, they’re the most impressive group of people I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” he said.

“It’s an honor to work with them, they’re committed, at no point do they ever give up, and I think today was just a case of running out of time, maybe if we were playing 80 minutes we would have got there.

“In the heat of the moment it’s easy to get frustrated but we need to look at our processes and how we prepared the players for it, I don’t think we were a million miles off.”

Austerberry added that he would look at the game and analyse where the approach had gone wrong in preparation for next season.

He said: “As a group and as a team it’s very much my responsibility to have a look at everything we’ve done in terms of game plan, did I get us in the right place mentally?

Just because we’re asking these questions, doesn’t mean that we didn’t but they’re the things we’ve got to do in a comprehensive review, it’s an elite sport and small margins make a difference and today we lost by small margins so it’s just about dealing with those areas.”

Written by Jonny Bray.