Saracens

11 Nov 2007 - 20:05

Saracens began their Heineken Cup campaign with a 33-31 bonus-point victory over Glasgow Warriors at Vicarage Road on Sunday and although delighted with his side's attacking play – Director of Rugby Alan Gaffney was far from pleased with the defence which allowed the visitors to claim a late losing bonus point.

As seemed to be the case when these two sides met at Vicarage Road last season, the Men In Black would open up a healthy lead only for a combination of mistakes and bad defending to allowed the Warriors back into the match.

"Looking at the last few games between these two sides, it was pretty similar in that we got away to a pretty handy lead and then loosened up," explained Gaffney.

"We can't ignore the fact that they could easily have won the game at the end and to be honest, the dressing room is like a morgue. There is elation in the fact that we've gone out and done what we wanted to do which was getting the five points. The attacking part of our game is good and we deserved to be rewarded with five points. But our defence is leaving a lot to be desired and it's not down to the structure – it's more individual errors.

"We can't afford to do that next weekend at Biarritz. It will be a very difficult game and I've experienced that trip several times as a coach and we'll be under no illusions as to how tough it will be. But we'll go over there and give it a good shot. Our attack is good at the minute and pretty much taking care of itself, but there needs to be more accountability in defence and there are areas in which we need to greatly improve."