Neil de Kock receives treatment last Sunday. Picture: Ryo Hayashida

Neil de Kock believes it is crucial for Saracens to try and get back to winning ways in their final two league games so they can approach next season's preparations full of confidence.

The eighth-placed Men in Black are destined for a mid-table Premiership finish this time but de Kock hopes good performances at least against Bath tomorrow (Saturday, 6pm kick off) and in Richard Hill's swansong against Bristol next weekend will act as a springboard for optimism ahead of Eddie Jones' first full campaign in charge.

Epic Heineken Cup displays against Ospreys and Munster have been punctuated by poor league defeats to Wasps and Gloucester but de Kock is hopeful Sarries can end their worst away run in the league since the 2003/04 season at the Recreation Ground tomorrow.

"It was massively disappointing not to have come away with anything from the Munster game but we've got to move on," said the scrum-half, who is a doubt for tomorrow's trip after falling awkwardly in a tackle against Munster. "We want to show we have the ability as a team to pick ourselves up and do as well as possible in the last two games.

"It is a good test of character and performing well would allow us to take confidence into pre-season where we can kick on from."

De Kock suffered a sleepless night after returning home from Coventry but admits nobody in the squad expected to reach the semi finals when they spelt out their aims last summer.

"We didn't expect to get that far," he added. "If you had told me at the start of the season we would face Munster in the semi finals of the Heineken Cup I would have taken it.

"We've achieved certain goals but fell short on some others. Inconsistency is a key area we need to look at as we've been very good in patches this season but also very poor in patches. There are various factors which affected that but that is something we don't need to go into right now.

"We've had highs and lows and you have to look at the season on the whole. We wanted to achieve Heineken Cup status again but we've failed in that department, which is a huge disappointment. It has also been massively disappointing in the Premiership having not kicked on from what we did last season."

However, their Heineken Cup heroics has left them thirsty for more and has provided even more motivation to qualify for the 2009/10 campaign.

"We've had a taste for it now - we all loved the challenge," commented the captain. "But we've got to go back to square one and qualify all over again. We now have the belief we can compete with the very best on any given day. The club has not been involved in a lot of big games like that (Munster game) for some time but hopefully it is a learning curve for us."

10:30am Friday 2nd May 2008

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