Martle's Place

The Saracens

This will be the page for the Saracens rugby team who play at the Vicarage Road Stadium in Watford, Hertfordshire. It will include information about the club and a gallery of pictures taken at some of the matches. In the meantime, just click on the logo to the left to be taken to the Sarries website.

SARACENS NEWSLETTER - 1/5/08

Hi Martle

I felt 10ft tall leaving the pitch on Sunday, I was that proud. Not just with the team's performance, but to have been able to lead Saracens on such a fantastic occasion and to have represented all of you.

I have to say, I thought all of you were amazing and the noise you created drowned out that of the Munster fans. If it wasn't emotional enough at the final whistle, the sight of 10,000 of you waving flags, cheering and applauding brought most of us to tears.

So, on behalf of the squad I want to say thank-you. We shared something special and it will live long in the memory. You made it a special day.

It's hard to describe the mood in the dressing rooms after the game. There was pride, disappointment, exhaustion - in fact pretty much every emotion you could think of. The Gaff called us together and just said thank you for the effort we had put in. He was in tears and he described it afterwards as the most emotional he'd ever been after a game.

I think the worst feeling was the fact that we'd actually got so close to getting the result. After the initial feelings, that sunk in while I was waiting in the tunnel to do an interview with Sky. Hilly and I were waiting for Alan Quinlan to finish and it was at that point when it really sunk in. As I said on TV at the time, it's doubly worse because it will be two years before we can have another crack at this competition.

As a club, we walked away with our heads held high and having gained the respect of clubs around Europe - something that as a group of players we wanted to achieve this season.

The mood on the bus back to Hatfield wasn't too bad. We had a few beers, sung a few songs and just had time to sit and reflect with each other.

But I did find it hard to sleep that night. I don't think I got more than a hour in total. All through the night all I could think of was the game. What if I'd done this differently or if I'd done that, would that have changed the result. I'm sure most of you were thinking the same thing when you woke up that morning.

But we have to move on. The messages of support you sent through that currently cover the whole wall on the physio room have helped a lot. Once again, thank you. I'm not sure I've known the room so quiet when full of players - everyone has been reading those messages.

The day has gone now and we have a tough challenge against Bath on Saturday. It's important that we build on that Munster performance and vital we have a strong finish to the year. Even if we cannot make the Heineken Cup next season, we want to finish as high as possible in the table and while we can still do that, we will be fighting hard.

The season is not over. We've still got two games to go and we want to finish on a high. Bath are flying at the moment and playing some great rugby. They've been playing well all year but the return of Butch James at fly half has really strengthened them and just added an extra dimension to their attack.

We don't plan to go out with a whimper. Once again, the TV cameras will be on us at The Rec and it's a chance to show everyone that we're not just a side that can perform in the Heineken Cup. That's what we've talked about this week - completing the season with pride. The same goes for our final home game of the season against Bristol. Whether it is played at Vicarage Road or Milton Keynes, we want to finish on a high.

All the best and thanks again for the fantastic support!

Neil de Kock - Saracens Captain