Saracens coach Mark McCall appreciates that while there's a large dollop of déjà vu attached to Saturday's Heineken Cup quarter-final against Ulster at Ravenhill, there is one appreciable difference. Last year, when the two sides met at the same stage of the tournament, the English club triumphed at Twickenham, 27-16.
This time, though, the game is in Belfast, a homecoming for the Bangor-born McCall, who both played for and coached the Irish province. There is no room for sentiment, McCall will be working just as hard as he did last year to try and guarantee a similar result. If he does he’ll be a pantomime villain for 24 hours or so. There’s too much respect for him for any resentment to linger.
He’ll impress upon his players the reception they’re going to receive, loud and hostile. He claims that Ulster will start as favourites but it’s doubtful whether many of the Saracens players will subscribe to the underdogs tag.
McCall explained: "They've (Ulster) had three away quarter-finals but this is their first home quarter-final (since 1999) and I gather they could have sold out many times over. People are talking of nothing else. They're going to be favourites but we'll go with a good plan and will be well prepared. They would say it's the biggest home game in their history."
The spotlight
On the notion of pressure and expectation McCall was glad to retrain the spotlight on Saturday's hosts. "I know from talking to everybody over there that there is a weight of expectation on them. That expectation comes from themselves because they believe they've underachieved and it comes from the public massively.
“I suppose our job is to try and turn that expectation into something different – a burden, pressure, stress and if we can do that we’ll see what happens. I don’t want us to be surprised and when you’re not surprised you can look forward to it and relish it.”
There’s a hard edge to the way that Saracens play, an aggression with and without the ball. They’ve endured some bitter disappointment to offset success in recent seasons but McCall is adamant that it has shaped their character for the better.
“As a group, we’ve experienced a lot of things together over the last five years – ups, downs, triumphs, huge setbacks, last-minute wins and last-minute losses. We think we’re as ready as we’ve ever been to attack this part of this season and a game like Ulster.
“The one thing that we’ve been really good at for the last three or four years is we’ve been unbelievably consistent but it’s about elevating your performance for a game like this, which is the next step. You have to be able to find another level and that’s what we’ve got to go and do.”
Ulster’s performance in defeat to Cardiff at the Arms Park last time out was uncharacteristically slapdash but they’re a different proposition at home.
McCall knows that, understands the umbilical link between the team and their supporters and how sprucing up the stadium won’t dilute the din when the men in white shirts are going forward. His players will be forewarned; after that it’s down to them.
