SARACENS head coach Buck Shelford was left to express the disappointment of his players after the Men in Black were cruelly dumped out of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup Semi-Final by the gut-wrenching margin of tries scored at The Rec on Saturday.

Sarries had looked on the verge of their first cup final appearance since 1998 after leading 57-50 on aggregate in the dying seconds of an absorbing match. But in a late, cruel twist Bath's Tom Voyce scooted over in the left-hand corner and Olly Barkley landed a touchline conversion with the last kick of the game to tie the scores. However, it was Bath, having scored six tries to Saracens five over the two legs, who now meet London Wasps in the final at the Madejski Stadium in May.

"As I said to the guys in the changing room it's a tough way to lose and the guys are really gutted," said the head coach. "We'll have a few beers tonight (Saturday), commiserate, cry into our beers and then front up on Tuesday. Weve lost and weve got to bury that and move. It's no use holding on to ghosts as you can't change the past but you can change the future.

"We were capable winning of today, continued Shelford, who has seen his side win just once since the turn of the year. Both teams played fairly poorly in that first 40 minutes and I thought the second half was a better a game of football from Saracens.

"I thought the players played fairly well in the second half and came back with a bit of steel in the second half and played some good football. We scored one try and should have actually gone for a couple more and kicked the ball to the corners rather taking shots at goal. But we didn't get what we came to get and it's about moving forward now and focusing solely on the Zurich."

The Saracens squad, visibly dejected, trudged on to the player's coach after the match and now have to lift themselves for a potential relegation eight-pointer against Bristol on Tuesday.

"We've just got to pick ourselves up," said Shelford, "but weve got a few injuries to sort out. Bracks (Kyran Bracken) took a big hit to the head in the first half and was in la la land for a while and well have to let the doctors see how he is on Sunday. Tim (Horan) aggravated an old injury and will take a couple of days to settle down, but there just might not be enough time. Richard (Hill) is still a question mark over his foot and Thomas (Castaignede) is also a question mark."

Despite the list of walking wounded, which also includes Nicky Little and Christian Califano, coupled with Sarries perilous position, Shelford still refuses point blank to contemplate the grim prospect of relegation.

"I'm not looking at going down, I'm staying very positive. I thought we would have done better than this but at the end of the day you live and die by the results. There is a lot of effort going in on and off the field and you can see that by the boys putting their body on the line today. No-one goes out there to deliberately lose but one team has to go down and we just have got to live with that. Its the reality of the championship, someone is going to go down.

"If you see the guys at training they really train well but the proof of the pudding is on the football field. If something goes wrong, I can't run on to the field and say stop lets do it again. Thats when all the players need to stand up to be counted, we cant do it for them all the time.

"Youve got to do it on the field of play, that is where the business starts and ends. I think the players have trained well this year, we just haven't got the results on the field of play that I felt we should have.

Shelford blasted his players for a lack of leadership in last Thursday's edition of The Rugby Club, implying that a captain may be at the top of his summer shopping list.

"Good leaders don't just fall off trees and sometimes you have to go and buy guys off the shelf with those traits," said the former All Black skipper.

"I think we all learn from our peers and the likes of Kyran and Richard aren't going to be around for ever and we need guys to take over from these players.

"If you can get them as 19 year-olds and they show signs of leadership then you can develop them into good leaders. Tony Roques is developing quite well and so is Hooper."

April 28, 2003 09:30