Mark McCall praised the resilience of his Saracens team after they booked themselves a spot in the Gallagher Premiership Rugby final with a 34-17 home win over rivals Harlequins.

Saracens were forced to come back from a 12-3 deficit, courtesy of tries from Alex Dombrandt and Danny Care for the reigning champions inside the opening 15 minutes. 

But Saracens did not lie down and had the lead again by half time, with Premiership Rugby player of the season Ben Earl crossing for a score, taking Dombrandt and Joe Marler with him on a trademark powerful surge.

Wales centre Nick Tompkins then latched on the end of Owen Farrell’s inside pass to give the home side a 15-12 lead at the break. 

It took less than a minute to make that lead ten points, as Earl ran in his second try into the corner, before Aled Davies scored Saracens’ fourth try to hand them a 15-point lead. 

And it was that resilience from his side that McCall was particularly pleased with, as his side scored an astonishing 26 unanswered points. 

“The level of resilience we showed at different times in the match was brilliant,” the director of rugby said.

“We were 12-3 down after 15 minutes as a result of them being on top set-piece wise, their maul was on top and their scrum was on top. 

“I thought we bounced back really well from that and scored 26 unanswered points. 

“I just though the level of togetherness, resolve, resilience and fight was brilliant. We scrap for everything, so I think that’s the thing that always comes to the fore.” 

Saracens spent much of the second half down to 14-men, with three yellow cards for high tackles going to Elliot Daly, Billy Vunipola and Alex Lozowski, leaving Saracens down at least one player for the last 30 minutes of the match. 

They continued to defend well though, and were even able to score the winner themselves, with Earl crossing for his hat-trick on the way to a man of the match performance. 

And McCall was delighted with the attitude shown by his players when put under pressure defensively.

He added: “We defended well when we had to, then we spent the last 27 minutes either with 14 men or with 13 men and to be down a man against an attack as good as Quins for that length of time is tough. 

“There were some important set piece moments, I thought Nick Isiekwe was phenomenal when he came on.

"He was good in the air, he stole some important balls and we started to win scrum penalties in the second half. 

“We just had to role our sleeves up, so it was a really good performance, and I’m really proud of the whole group.”