Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall has claimed that his side's poor first-half display cost them during Sunday's defeat to Northampton Saints.
Sarries conceded three tries inside the opening 25 minutes at Vicarage Road on their way to suffering a 31-24 loss in the Aviva Premiership clash.
McCall believes that his team restored some pride after the break as they staged a minor fightback, but he admits that the damage was done early on in the match.
"We weren't sharp enough, weren't intelligent enough, lacked intensity in really everything we did, and Saints were 25-3 up after 25 minutes," he told Premiershiprugby.com.
"We gave ourselves a shot at the end, to come back to 28-21, and we had a lot of momentum in those last eight or nine minutes.
"I'm glad we showed our true colours in the second half, we looked like a team who had a bit of bite, a bit of edge, a bit of urgency. It would have been a good achievement to have pulled it back, but we gave ourselves far too much to do."
Sunday's defeat has kept Saracens in fourth place in the Aviva Premiership table.
