Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was hugely disappointed following his side’s 27-19 loss at Exeter Chiefs on Saturday, admitting the hosts’ foundations were stronger.

Exeter’s Gareth Steenson kicked all of the hosts’ points as the Wolf Pack slipped to their second consecutive Premiership defeat in Devon.

Maro Itoje went over for Sarries, whilst Charlie Hodgson converted four of his five penalty attempts as Sarries came up short against a Steenson masterclass.

Speaking to the club’s website, McCall state: “We’re hugely disappointed with our performance overall. I thought we were second best in most areas, and at this level of rugby you need to have some solid foundations and I thought that Exeter’s foundations were better than ours today.

“They got the upper hand at the scrum early on, and give Exeter credit, they built on that and it gave them more field position throughout the game. We were on the back foot for most of the contents.”

The Ulsterman added: “Exeter kicked the ball very well, and it’s easier to that when you’re on the front foot. I thought Gareth (Steenson) kicked well, but it’s not only him, I thought (Henry) Slade kicked well, so did their scrum-half (Will Chudley).

“We made some individual errors in the back field, that we normally wouldn’t do, and they got a couple of early penalties from our mistakes”.

Saracens are now without a win in three Premiership fixtures after defeat against Northampton Saints and a draw at Leicester Tigers, but McCall was philosophical in reflecting on his side’s recent run.

He mused: “These three weeks were always going to be a little bit difficult. I thought we played pretty well at Welford Road to be honest, and deserved to win that. We were disappointed by our first half performance last weekend, but we were happy with the second half.

“I think today overall I think that was our most disappointing. But we have a couple of big games coming up and we’ve got a group who are pretty good at bouncing back.”

In international action, Owen Farrell, Brad Barritt, Richard Wigglesworth and George Kruis all featured as England ended the Autumn International campaign with a 26-17 win over Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.

Kruis was the only starter for Stuart Lancaster’s side, with the other three all featuring as replacements for the Red Rose.