Next Up | Sarries head to Pau before Premiership returns

Next Saturday, Mark McCall’s Saracens Men’s side travel to Pau for what will be their second game in the European Challenge Cup.

The French side are ninth in the TOP 14 with five wins from 12 games so far this season. Their last league result was a 14-14 draw with Toulon. 

Next Sunday, Saracens Women travel to Sale Sharks Women for another Allianz Premier 15s match. 

And it means that Saracens Men won’t be back on home turf until the heart of the festive period when Worcester Warriors travel to StoneX on Boxing Day. 

The traditional Boxing Day rugby will mark the return of Gallagher Premiership action with Jonathan Thomas’ Worcester heading to North London. 

That game should be an intriguing one with the Warriors showing signs of life in the Premiership after a tough start to the competition. 

Worcester captain Ted Hill has seen some dark days already this season, but the Warriors captain insists Thomas' men are fighting their way out of trouble. 

A tense 32-31 home victory over Wasps was yet another step in the right direction for the Sixways side although they were made to sweat for it in the final few minutes.

Worcester won just one of their opening six Gallagher Premiership games and suffered shellackings at the hands of Exeter, Leicester and Northampton.

But in the last six weeks they have started to show signs of improvement under the guidance of head coach Thomas.

A defeat of Wasps by the narrowest of margins was Worcester’s third consecutive victory at home and their second bonus-point success in four league matches.
The home side's performance against Wasps displayed a huge amount of character and belief as they held on for the win, qualities Hill believes are being enhanced on a weekly basis.

“It comes from putting the work in during the week and then seeing the effort on the weekend come to light,” he said.

“We work hard during the week, we are honest with each other, and we want to challenge each other. Then we get the performances at the weekend – that is how confidence is built.”

Thomas is delighted to see the confidence building in his Worcester squad with Saracens around the corner for his team after the first two rounds of Europe. 
“Confidence and momentum are massive things in sport,” said the former Wales back-row.

“There is no bad team and no bad squad in this league at the moment and confidence is the difference between winning and losing. Our confidence is building.”

Thomas added after the Wasps win: “I am really proud of the players for winning the game. We weren't great in the second half in the sense we made some basic errors that allowed them territory.

“We are striving for consistency. We are not the finished article by any means and we are well aware of that. We go into the Challenge Cup now and really look forward to that competition.”