Gaffney seeks improvement

11:47am Monday 14th April 2008

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Saracens boss Alan Gaffney is seeking an immediate response from his downbeat players when in-form Wasps visit Vicarage Road on Sunday.

The Men in Black were hopelessly outfought during Saturday's 39-15 defeat at Premiership leaders Gloucester and the director of rugby knows that a repeat display will see Ian McGeechan's men walk away from Watford victorious.

Sarries destroyed Ospreys in the Heineken Cup quarter finals six days earlier, prompting Gaffney to describe the contrasting results as 'chalk and cheese'.

He also admitted the club has now set its sights on a top six league finish after conceding their play-off challenge is dead in the water.

"The performance last week to this week is like chalk and cheese," said the Aussie. "We went out there with a fairly simple game plan and from minute one we didn't stick to it.

"We created some of their scores for them. We were hopelessly beaten at the breakdown and outplayed in the contact area. Last week we were very good at the breakdown, this week we didn't compete and that is hard to explain."

Gaffney, however, was buoyed with his team's mini-revival towards the end of the game which yielded tries for Adam Powell and Ben Skirving, with replacement fly-half Gordon Ross instrumental in both scores.

"The guys stood up in the last bit of the game. Gordon Ross did well when he came on and Adam Powell was quite bright, but by then it was all over.

"We're going to have to lift our ante hugely otherwise we are going to struggle next week against Wasps."