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European Champions Cup: Saracens boss Mark McCall heaps praise on Billy Vunipola after win over Munster

 Billy Vunipola of Saracens is tackled by Ernst Joubert  of Munster during the European Rugby Champions Cup
Image: Billy Vunipola looks to offload out of the tackle

Saracens boss Mark McCall heaped praise on No 8 Billy Vunipola after his side's 33-10 win over Munster on Saturday.

Saracens took a giant stride towards the European Champions Cup quarter-finals after an impressive performance at Allianz Park.

Wings Chris Wyles and Chris Ashton scored first-half tries, before Ashton added a second touchdown after the break, while Owen Farrell kicked four penalties and three conversions for an 18-point haul.

But it was Vunipola’s impressive ball-carrying skills that really caught the eye and reinforced his claim to be the man to replace the injured Ben Morgan in England's starting line-up for the RBS Six Nations

"Billy was phenomenal today," said Saracens rugby director Mark McCall.

"He was a force of nature in attack and defence, but I thought we had outstanding performances right through the group.

We are in a position where we go to Clermont, and if we win the match, we win the pool. That is what our intention is going to be.
Mark McCall

"(Scrum-half) Richard Wigglesworth was magnificent – he set the pace and tone of the match – and Chris Ashton was outstanding – not his two tries, which were good, but some of his kicking game early on allowed us to control things.

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"There is a small sense of frustration that we didn't get the fourth try (and bonus point), but I thought it was a really good performance.

"We are in a position where we go to Clermont, and if we win the match, we win the pool. That is what our intention is going to be."

Disappointing

Munster, though, are effectively out of the competition after suffering their heaviest European defeat since losing 60-19 to Toulouse during the 1996-97 season.

Their failure to reach the last eight, which should be confirmed later on Saturday after Clermont's game against Sale Sharks, is only the second time in the last 17 European campaigns that they have experienced such misery.

And after suffering home and away defeats against Clermont in December, it was the first time for Munster to be on the receiving end of three successive European losses.

"It was very disappointing. We didn't turn up at times," Munster head coach Anthony Foley said.

"If you look at their scores, they probably started with a big error by us. We didn't fire a shot, particularly early on in such an important game for us with the tournament on the line.

"With a result like that, we don't get out of our group. We need to address a few things and make sure that we turn up next weekend (against Sale) and put in a performance.

"We were dropping passes; we were passing the ball to fresh air.

"There is a lot of character in the team and a lot of good players. It is just unfortunate that we played like we did today."

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