Vunipola's unlucky night cost Sarries

 

Northampton Saints Director of Rugby Jim Mallinder believes Stephen Myler showed his class as he kicked six penalties and a conversion to help his side to an Premiership win over Saracens.

 

Myler was in brilliant form at Stadium mk as he hauled his side from behind and got them over the line against Mark McCall's troops.

 

Sarries started the brighter of the two sides and edged in front when Chris Wyles dashed over unchallenged on the left.

 

Saints were way off their best but two Myler penalties got them on the board before Wyles dived over again for the visitors.

 

Luther Burrell manufactured a fabulous try for Samu Manoa shortly after but Charlie Hodgson was proving effective from the tee.

 

But Myler kept his cool and his kicking eventually proved the difference between the sides – much to the delight of Mallinder.

 

While Mallinder was delighted with his side's performance, McCall was disappointed as Saracens threw away their lead.

 

They had plenty of chances to pull further ahead – the most notable of which fell to Billy Vunipola who charged down a kick before knocking on a metre from the line under no pressure.

 

Vunipola was then forced off with injury shortly after and McCall believes the period was a crucial one in the match.

 

"You can't expect to win games of that nature when you give away the amount of penalties that we did. There were seven penalties for offside," he said.

 

"We genuinely don't mind losing the odd game. Last week, I was incredibly proud of how we lost. This felt a bit different. We lost a bit of composure in the last 20 minutes.

 

"We were clinical for our first two scores, but we had a horrible six minutes when Billy Vunipola drops the ball over the line, then he rolls his ankle.

 

"It is a big blow to lose a player like him – and then his replacement goes off two minutes later. Billy has rolled his ankle. We will know more in the next couple of days – and Jackson Wray has got a concussion."

 

The win was exactly what Saints needed in terms of the play-off race.

 

"This win is a big help in terms of trying to achieve that home semifinal," said Mallinder.

 

"Saracens disrupted our set-piece – the lineout didn't function quite as well as it normally does – but we managed to keep in the game and Stephen Myler kicked his goals.

 

"Stephen gets man-of-the-match in a lot of the big games he plays in. You need someone as reliable as him who can kick the goals in big pressure situations and can run the team.

 

"Billy Vunipola going off was a critical moment. We seemed to get on the front foot in the second half and we dominated."