Exeter Defeat Saracens 32-12 to Reach Premiership Semi-Finals as McCall Era Ends

Exeter defeated Saracens 32-12 at Sandy Park on 6 June 2026, ending Mark McCall's 17-year stint as Saracens director of rugby and securing a Premiership semi-final at Bath next week. The result lifted Exeter to third in the table and returned the club to the play-offs for the first time since 2021. Leicester dropped to fourth after losing to Bath.

Tobias Elliott scored for Saracens early in the first half. Henry Slade replied with a penalty in the 18th minute. Rotimi Segun had a try disallowed for the visitors. Charlie Bracken was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on in the 43rd minute.

Max Norey scored from a line-out in first-half stoppage time to give Exeter an 8-5 lead at the break. Slade scored Exeter's second try seven minutes into the second half and added his second penalty four minutes later. Andrea Zambonin crossed with 16 minutes remaining to make the score 25-5.

Nick Isiekwe scored for Saracens with eight minutes left. Stephen Varney added a bonus-point try two minutes from time. Exeter scorers were tries by Norey, Slade, Zambonin and Varney, three conversions and two penalties by Slade.

Saracens scored tries by Elliott and Isiekwe with one conversion by Farrell. Henry Slade finished the 2025-26 season with 10 tries. Exeter attack coach Dave Walder said: "I enjoyed it a lot. " Mark McCall said: "In the end we were beaten by a better team.

We were frustrated because in the first half I felt we were probably physically in a good place, dominating the field position. " McCall added: "I thought in the first half physically is maybe as good as we've been all year to be honest, we really disrupted them and we just didn't show any of that on the scoreboard and that'll cost you in the end.