mobanmarketSaracens director of rugby Mark McCall hailed Alex Goode’s brilliance after he inspired them to a 33-22 victory over Sale Sharks, while making a record 339th appearance for the North London club.
Goode crossed for a superb try and was prominent on attack as he produced some excellent touches, including laying the groundwork for Nick Tompkins’ final try which secured them a deserved bonus point at StoneX Stadium.
The former England full-back has spent his entire 14-year professional carrier at Sarries and McCall revealed that the 34-year-old’s superb skills are still leaving his team-mates in awe.
High praise
“Alex’s performance against Sale was as it always is because I don’t think there’s been a more consistent player in the Premiership for the last 10 years,” McCall said.
“I can’t remember a bad game and he performs at a consistently brilliant level.
“We watched a highlights video of him on Friday and you could hear a pin drop in the room because our younger players, who haven’t really seen it all, were amazed by what they saw.
“Alex is obviously naturally talented and he sees things before everybody else and those qualities are obvious, but what is not so obvious to people is how driven he is and how competitive he is.
“He’s been an incredible player for the club but also an incredible person for the club as well. He enjoys a final and he also enjoys a post-final!
“But he’s also wonderful with our younger players. He’s got huge rugby IQ and our younger players are lucky that he takes the time he does with them.”
It was only Sale’s second loss of the season and their director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, was disappointed that they did not utilise their try-scoring opportunities in the second half.
“We were three points down at half-time, but there were opportunities squandered on the back of some soft tries,” he said.
Still happy despite defeat
“I’m happy about the way we played the game and happy about the opportunities we created to give us a chance to win the game. Close but no cigar.
“We were a metre from the line two or three times, but you have to convert and have to get over the line.
“We came out of our system and didn’t take the opportunity to convert the obvious pressure.”
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