Marcelo Bosch says miserly defence electrifies Saracens juggernaut

Mark McCall’s side are the dominant force in European rugby and travel to the Scarlets in search of a record 14th successive Champions Cup win

Saracens used to be a byword for inconsistency but this decade they have established themselves as the hardest team to beat in Europe.

Victory over the Scarlets in Llanelli on Sunday would make it a record 14 successive victories in the Champions Cup, a tournament they had only a passing interest in until 2010. But the visitors are in no doubt that the tie will be demanding, with Saracens’ director of rugby, Mark McCall, billing the match as the most important of the season.

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Up to 2010-11, Saracens had played 32 matches in the 15 seasons of the European Cup and won 18. Since McCall’s first full season in his current role, they have been involved in 45 European ties, winning 35, and are unbeaten in the tournament since the 2015 semi-final when they lost 13-9 to Clermont Auvergne in Saint-Étienne.

Last season, Saracens became the first team to win the cup and not lose a match; this season they are the only undefeated side. Beating the Scarlets would mean they have qualified for the knockout stage for the sixth successive campaign, having done so once previously. Like Leinster at the start of the decade and then Toulon, they have become the dominant force in the Champions Cup.

Leinster and Munster have rekindled Ireland’s passion for the tournament in recent months and Clermont Auvergne are top of their pool as well as the Top 14, fresh from a 30-6 victory over Toulon last Sunday. Yet Saracens remain the unstoppable force, as they showed in their opening tie when they went to Toulon and eviscerated the team that in 2015 became the first to win the Champions Cup in three successive years in a devastating first half, when they surprised their hosts by playing with width.

The default position of Saracens remains defence: they have conceded a meagre 10 tries in 13 Premiership matches this season and five in their four European fixtures, 15 in 17 in total. No team have scored more than two tries against them and in 2016 they coughed up two bonus points, both during the Six Nations, against Wasps and Sale, when they were adjusting to the loss of their defence coach, Paul Gustard, to England.

“We enjoy defending together as a team and it was amazing what we achieved defensively against Exeter last weekend when we played for 70 minutes with 14 men,” says the centre Marcelo Bosch. “We will have to be at our best in the next two weeks against the Scarlets and Toulon, sides who are blessed with good players, and it is about being constantly switched on.

“We know it is going to be tough on Sunday because the Scarlets can play from deep and they have to win to stay in the competition. Mark McCall has described it as the most important game of the season for us because if we win, we have qualified for the next stage.”

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Scarlets may certainly prove a tough nut to crack. Since losing to Munster in the Pro 12 on the opening weekend of the season, the Welsh side have won all their home matches, six in the league, with their victims including Leinster, Glasgow and Ulster, and two in Europe, notably Toulon in the last round, a result that leaves the French club probably needing to win at Allianz Park next Saturday to make it to the last eight.

What is more, Saracens are missing a number of their internationals because of injury. The Vunipola brothers, George Kruis, Brad Barritt, Alex Goode and Duncan Taylor will not travel to Llanelli because of injury. Owen Farrell captains the side from fly-half and Alex Lozowski will play out of position at full-back, a position occupied in the Scarlets by Liam Williams, who will be joining Sarries in the summer. “We understand the significance of this game in terms of getting what we want, which is a home quarter-final,” says McCall. “If 22 points is not enough for that, the Toulon game becomes all the more important.

“We are aware of the Scarlets’ home record and that it is a tough old place to go. They have Liam Williams, who is everything you want in a winger and an exciting signing for us, and we have got a very big job to do. We have had a lot of disruption all season and it has been a test of our resources, but I always think about who is playing, not who is missing.”