Brendan Venter blames scrum again for Saracens' defeat at Leeds (From Watford Observer)

Brendan Venter blames scrum again for Saracens' defeat at Leeds

11:17am Monday 8th March 2010 in

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Brendan Venter admits he faces a real challenge to help overturn Saracens' alarming slump in form.

The Men in Black started the season with eight consecutive Guinness Premiership wins but they are struggling to make the play-offs after five defeats in their last six games.

Venter has pinpointed their problems in the scrum as the reason for their downturn and their set piece was exposed once more in the 19-12 loss at Leeds yesterday.

After watching their third consecutive defeat, Sarries' director of rugby Venter said: "The challenge of this is to find a solution. The solution is not in shouting or screaming. If we want to be competitive, we've already done a lot of good things this season.

"We are going forward but if we want to finish this season and come out of this thing, if we want to do that, as much as Leeds are fighting for survival, if we can turn this season around and still make the semi-finals that will be as much of an achievement as our path to making Saracens the top club in Europe. That's the challenge at the moment.

"It's got nothing to do with the gameplan. We were winning that game [Leeds] at half time. Everybody knows what Leicester are going to do. Do you think in the Premiership people don't know what Wasps or Bath are going to do? It's just whether you can do it better and this game is built around a set piece.

"That's how it works and if that cog doesn't function nothing functions. It doesn't matter how good your moves are and your retention skills, how good your phase play and kicking is, if this one bit buckles the whole thing keeps wanting to fall."