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Nick Auterac is an England international in the making, according to Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall, who was waxing lyrical after the prop held a late Gloucester siege at bay to seal victory for his side.
Auterac has just turned 20 but McCall had no problem with throwing him in at the deep-end in the 28-23 Aviva Premiership win at Vicarage Road, and the youngster stood firm against the powerful Gloucester scrum.
Charlie Hodgson's 23 points and Richard Wigglesworth's second half-try had given Sarries a five-point lead to defend but in-form Gloucester piled on the late pressure.
They were awarded three scrums just a few metres from the Sarries try-line at the death but the hosts bull-dozed the visitors in the third, and McCall believes Auterac must take the plaudits.
"The team showed a lot of character," he said. "We brought on Nick Auterac, who hasn't much Premiership experience, for a couple of scrums on our line - so maybe it wasn't the kindest thing I've ever done to him.
"But that last scrum was amazing. He's a really talented kid who's come through our academy. We're well blessed with looseheads and Nick is going to be the future."
Bath Rugby director of rugby Gary Gold insisted his team were the architects of their own downfall in their 17-12 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on Saturday.
The visitors were 12-6 up in the second half courtesy of tries from Stephen Donald and Tom Biggs with two George Ford penalties keeping Leicester in it.
But referee Tim Wigglesworth then showed the red card to Bath's Francois Louw and Matt Banahan as well as Tigers' Brett Deacon.
Wigglesworth also sin-binned Bath's Simon Taylor and Donald, and Leicester capitalised with Adam Thompstone going over and Ford adding the extras, but Gold refused to blame the defeat solely on the officials.
"I would have to go and have a look at the video before I talk about the red cards but the most important thing and my initial feeling about what happened out there was that we were the masters of our own destiny," Gold said.
"Certainly I will never condone or coach foul play and I know the professionals involved but more worrying for me is the penalty count.
"We are going to work hard to rectify it. We thought we had made headway on it last week but again some of it is a mystery and we need to look at ourselves first.
"I thought Matt's definitely wasn't a red but when you lose a game I don't want to have a go at officials."
Northampton Saints came away with a 27-16 win at Sale Sharks after first-half tries from Jamie Elliott, Soane Tonga'uiha and Tom May.
The Aviva Premiership basement side were much improved after the break adding 13 unanswered points but it was not enough for a losing bonus point.
Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder said: "I thought we played really well in the first half - we controlled the game, we did everything we had talked about.
"At half-time we said to keep doing the same things but unfortunately we didn't and the second half left a lot to be desired.
"We were guilty of losing the ball too much - we forced a couple of balls, we missed some tackles and we stopped playing.
"We should have kept playing. I don't think our outside backs touched the ball in the second half -
we've got some good exciting backs and we need to use them.
"As a coach you want to play for 80 minutes but it's something you very rarely do, it's something we have to keep striving for."
London Wasps remain without a win on the road this season after Exeter Chiefs battled to a 30-23 victory.
Chris Whitehead, Haydn Thomas and Phil Dollman all went over as the Chiefs their fifth Aviva Premiership win from as many games at Sandy Park.
The visitors had drawn themselves level at 20-20 with tries from Elliot Daly and Tom Varndell but Wasps failed to score after the break and went home with only a bonus point.
London Welsh player-coach Gordon Ross kicked five-from-five as his side overcame relegation rivals London Irish, who had Chris Hala'ufia's dismissed early on.
In Friday's game Nick Evans kicked a drop goal with seven minutes remaining to lead reigning champions Harlequins to a 22-19 victory over Worcester Warriors.
Evans ended up 17 points after Worcester's leading try-scorer David Lemi crossed for the fourth time this season early on.
They were awarded three scrums just a few metres from the Sarries try-line at the death but the hosts bull-dozed the visitors in the third, and McCall believes Auterac must take the plaudits.
"The team showed a lot of character," he said. "We brought on Nick Auterac, who hasn't much Premiership experience, for a couple of scrums on our line - so maybe it wasn't the kindest thing I've ever done to him.
"But that last scrum was amazing. He's a really talented kid who's come through our academy. We're well blessed with looseheads and Nick is going to be the future."
Bath Rugby director of rugby Gary Gold insisted his team were the architects of their own downfall in their 17-12 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on Saturday.
The visitors were 12-6 up in the second half courtesy of tries from Stephen Donald and Tom Biggs with two George Ford penalties keeping Leicester in it.
But referee Tim Wigglesworth then showed the red card to Bath's Francois Louw and Matt Banahan as well as Tigers' Brett Deacon.
Wigglesworth also sin-binned Bath's Simon Taylor and Donald, and Leicester capitalised with Adam Thompstone going over and Ford adding the extras, but Gold refused to blame the defeat solely on the officials.
"I would have to go and have a look at the video before I talk about the red cards but the most important thing and my initial feeling about what happened out there was that we were the masters of our own destiny," Gold said.
"Certainly I will never condone or coach foul play and I know the professionals involved but more worrying for me is the penalty count.
"We are going to work hard to rectify it. We thought we had made headway on it last week but again some of it is a mystery and we need to look at ourselves first.
"I thought Matt's definitely wasn't a red but when you lose a game I don't want to have a go at officials."
Northampton Saints came away with a 27-16 win at Sale Sharks after first-half tries from Jamie Elliott, Soane Tonga'uiha and Tom May.
The Aviva Premiership basement side were much improved after the break adding 13 unanswered points but it was not enough for a losing bonus point.
Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder said: "I thought we played really well in the first half - we controlled the game, we did everything we had talked about.
"At half-time we said to keep doing the same things but unfortunately we didn't and the second half left a lot to be desired.
"We were guilty of losing the ball too much - we forced a couple of balls, we missed some tackles and we stopped playing.
"We should have kept playing. I don't think our outside backs touched the ball in the second half -
we've got some good exciting backs and we need to use them.
"As a coach you want to play for 80 minutes but it's something you very rarely do, it's something we have to keep striving for."
London Wasps remain without a win on the road this season after Exeter Chiefs battled to a 30-23 victory.
Chris Whitehead, Haydn Thomas and Phil Dollman all went over as the Chiefs their fifth Aviva Premiership win from as many games at Sandy Park.
The visitors had drawn themselves level at 20-20 with tries from Elliot Daly and Tom Varndell but Wasps failed to score after the break and went home with only a bonus point.
London Welsh player-coach Gordon Ross kicked five-from-five as his side overcame relegation rivals London Irish, who had Chris Hala'ufia's dismissed early on.
In Friday's game Nick Evans kicked a drop goal with seven minutes remaining to lead reigning champions Harlequins to a 22-19 victory over Worcester Warriors.
Evans ended up 17 points after Worcester's leading try-scorer David Lemi crossed for the fourth time this season early on.
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