MATCH REACTION | Alex Austerberry (PWD Rd 14)

Director of Rugby Alex Austerberry was left frustrated, as his side fell to defeat in Bristol.

On a challenging afternoon against the Bears, Austerberry admitted that slow starts at the beginning of each half cost his side.

“It’s disappointing. If you look at it, we were 14-0 down after 6 minutes and we conceded straight after half-time. That’s a lot of points to concede at the start of each half and it provided them with a key momentum shift at the start of each half.

We found a way of riding the storm pretty well when we pulled it back to 14-10, but ultimately, it’s a disappointing day. Fair credit to Bristol, because they played very well, but for us it’s frustrating as we know we didn’t play anywhere near the potential we know we have.”

Austerberry’s side know that they still have their destiny very much in their own hands and the DoR challenged his side to learn from the defeat.

“If we learn from this and use it in the right way, then a day like this one will be valuable. It will sting for a bit, but we’re still second in the league and in control of our own destiny. We could have had a firmer grasp on it, but we know we can still control the controllables. This is one of our lowest periods this season, but it isn’t terminal damage by any stretch.”

Results this weekend confirmed Saracens’ place in the play-offs, and Austerberry explained that the focus now had to turn to trying to secure a top-two finish.

“Now, our attention has to shift to trying securing a home semi-final. We’ve probably left ourselves with too much to do now to finish top of the league, but we’re very much in contention for that home semi-final. That’s what we need to work towards in the league.”

With a break from league action until May and a cup semi-final to come, Austerberry was quick to highlight that one poor result won’t be what ends up defining his side’s season.

“We’ve got a week off this week, where we’ll lick a few wounds, but then it’s about looking forward and looking towards the cup semi-final. We can’t lose sight of the fact that we’ve still been having a good season. This result doesn’t make it a bad season, but it just shows us that we’ve got some learning to do.”

The league now takes a backseat with players away on international duty. With a cup semi-final against Exeter to come next month, Austerberry wants his side to rediscover their momentum over the next few weeks and channel that back into league matters when the campaign resumes in May.

“It’s Saracens versus Exeter, so we want to lay down a marker with the recent history between the two clubs. A positive result in the cup, coupled with hopefully people coming back from strong individual performances in the Six Nations, will give us a real spring in our step. That continues and rolls us into what is a full-on period of games. Hopefully we can grow and develop during the cup and then harness the momentum heading back into the league.”