The relegated European and Premiership giants suffered a shock defeat to Cornish Pirates on the opening weekend of the 2020/21 Championship season and McCall holds the view that another result of that nature would be unacceptable.
Saracens, who were beaten twice by Ealing in pre-season, were expected to steamroll through most, if not all clubs in their path this term but second-tier rugby appears to have caught them unawares. The Reds – set for their first competitive game since February 2020 – will be looking to add to their short-term woes.
The London club, who won the European Champions Cup in 2019, are without a large number of Six Nations internationals for the first month of the campaign but still boast no fewer than five Premiership champions, including 2019 World Cup winner Vincent Koch.
‘We lost a lot of lineouts and scrum penalties during the course of the game against Pirates,’ said former Ireland international McCall. ‘We have proud forwards in there and that’s not a usual thing for them.
‘We’ve got to get the fundamentals right. We were poor last weekend so expect the players to be way better against Jersey. Expect to see a completely different animal.
‘Not everything will go our way against Jersey, that’s for sure, but I expect us to be very good this weekend.’
