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A Wray of hope for weakened Saracens as they prepare for rugby’s ultimate test

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The challenge for Saracens in their Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster in Dublin tomorrow has seemed to get steeper by the day. And oh, how the days have passed.

Beating Leinster away is the toughest peak to scale in European club rugby. They are a squad strong enough to rest Johnny Sexton for the Pro14 final and still win. They have not lost since the Champions Cup final in May 2019, when Saracens beat them. At the best of times, winning this game would have been a mighty achievement. At Saracens, these are not the best of times.

Even before the lockdown, this game was all that really mattered to Saracens. They were relegated from the Premiership but it represented a last dance for a group that had achieved so much together, while the bean-counters got things so badly wrong.

Since rugby resumed, they have been even more brazen in their acknowledgement that all roads led to Dublin. The trouble is that key components have been chipped off that group piece by piece. Players have left, on both loan and permanent arrangements. And, then Owen Farrell made that “tackle”.

Saracens are still able to put out a strong side. Only two members of the XV are not full internationals, and Mako Vunipola, Richard Wigglesworth and Duncan Taylor are all over recent injury issues to start. Alex Goode steps in for Farrell at fly-half, with Manu Vunipola, 20, on the bench.

One of the two uncapped players is Jackson Wray, the club stalwart who is staying for their year in the Championship and will make his 250th appearance for the club. “It’s been a long time coming,” he told Standard Sport.

“Before lockdown and everything that came with that we were thinking about this one. Premiership, relegation, a long lockdown, players leaving on loan and permanently.

“Throw all that in the mix and it’s just very bizarre circumstances. It’s an opportunity that at one stage it looked like we wouldn’t get.”

In such situations, it is inevitable that a bunker mentality emerges — and Wray is confident that Sarries can advance to the semi-finals once more.

“It’s quite inevitable after the year we’ve had that your resilience levels increase,” he said.

“It’s bad news after bad news, which is what it’s felt like most of the time. We are aware that we have always been a team people want to beat. I don’t remember a time over the last 10 years where that hasn’t been the case. This year it’s been that — and some.

“It’s made us stronger and the environment’s been tested. That’s what happens in times of adversity. We’ve dealt with it as best we can.

“Even though the majority of the season we’ve played for nothing. That’s something that will only get better and the environment will only get stronger because of it. We know that when we play our best, we can beat anyone.”

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