North Londoners went down 23-9 in Sunday’s showpiece event

Ham & High: Northampton Saints' Alex Mitchell (left) tackles Saracens' Max Malins (pic: Nigel French/PA)Northampton Saints' Alex Mitchell (left) tackles Saracens' Max Malins (pic: Nigel French/PA) (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Rotimi Segun says Saracens can be proud of their efforts in this season’s Premiership Rugby Cup, despite losing 23-9 at Northampton Saints in the final.

The north Londoners were hoping to complete the first part of what would have been an unprecedented treble, but came up short away to Saints.

While Sarries named a youthful squad for the final, Northampton fielded a host of internationals including Luther Burrell, Piers Francis, Tom Wood and Teimana Harrison.

Saints’ greater experience eventually told as they ran in three tries in total, while all the Allianz Park club could muster were three Max Malins penalties.

Wing Segun notes it was a disappointing end to the competition for Saracens, but feels the tournament on the whole was a success for the north Londoners.

Segun told the club website: “Some of the teams we’ve gone to in this competition, like Harlequins and Worcester Warriors, were tough games and the fact that we got to the final is huge credit to the boys, but it’s just tough losing in the final.

“Full credit to Northampton, but they had a lot of players with first-team experience while some of our squad hadn’t played for over a month.

“It’s encouraging to see the boys stick at it for the whole 80 minutes and we can get at it again next year.”

Saracens were always likely to be up against it in the final, with Northampton awarded home advantage by virtue of being the higher seed.

With a sell-out 15,000-strong crowd behind Saints at Franklin’s Gardens, the atmosphere was certainly intimidating for the north Londoners.

But Segun feels Sarries coped well in difficult circumstances, even if they were unable to claim the win they craved.

“We kept going for the whole 80 minutes, but it was a very tough game and Northampton is a very tough place to go to,” he added.

“There were 15,000 people at Franklin’s Gardens who turned out to support their players, but the boys stuck at it really well.

“It’s a tough one because we fell off of a couple of tackles which gave them momentum and it’s hard to stop a team with momentum. We stuck at it, but it was just hard luck.”

There were certainly a host of positives for Saracens to take from their cup final defeat.