Mark McCall paid tribute to chairman Nigel Wray’s tireless work after Saracens’ Premiership breakthrough.

Wray has spent approximately £20m since becoming involved with the club in 1995 and he was finally rewarded on Saturday with the greatest day in their history at Twickenham.

Director of rugby McCall said: “It’s a momentous day for all those people that have been involved for a lot longer than me.

“Nigel Wray has poured his heart and soul into this club and has had some ups and downs and some heartache along the way. For him this is a very special day and all the Saracens supporters who stuck with the club through thick and thin. For them it’s a momentous day.

“Nigel had a nervous breakdown like the rest of us in the last seven minutes. You see what it means to him and he’s been through a lot at this club and we’re all very pleased for Nigel.”

Saracens have previously tried to buy their way to success with big name signings such as Chris Jack and Cencus Johnston but it did not bring the trophies they craved.

Instead, a talented group of young English players has been supplemented with determined South Africans who arrived as unknown quantities but have proved invaluable members of the team. This new policy has delivered the title for Wray after years of investment and effort.

Wray, who is hoping to move the Men in Black to Copthall Stadium within the next year, said: “If I had known what it would cost both emotionally and as a fan of course I wouldn’t [have got involved]. It’s a huge privilege to try and create something special. I’d have rolled up as a fan and let someone else do it.

“Having done it you don’t regret a damn thing. We’re only down on earth once. I’m a lucky bugger to have been able to do it.

“We’ve got to work harder and see how we can get better. We do a lot of good things but we need to do everything better. We’ve got a lot of intelligent people thinking about it but there’s no guarantee. What we mustn’t do is rest on our laurels in anyway. The essence of life is taking risks and I like taking risks and I want to be in the arena.”

McCall, who has won all of his Premiership matches since taking over as director of rugby in January, was quick to credit predecessor and current technical director Brendan Venter for contributing to their success.

He added: “His finger prints [Venter] are all over the club but you have got to understand this is not about one person. We want to build something which isn’t dependent on any one player or person. If that’s the case then when somebody leaves the whole thing falls down.

“Brendan’s fingerprints are all over it and he’s done an unbelievable thing kick-starting this project but there are a lot of people behind the scenes who have worked unbelievably hard to give us this success.”

He added: “We’ve been here twice in a row and we want to be there at the business end of every season. We’re a club that's growing and had we conceded a try in the last minute we would still have been a club on the up and going places.”