Saracens beat Munster 33-10 in the European Champions Cup at a sold-out Allianz Park this afternoon, a performance director of rugby Mark McCall felt his side needed.

Wing Chris Ashton excelled for the Men in Black; scoring two tries give England coach Stuart Lancaster food for thought.

Owen Farrell kicked 12 points for the Wolf Pack, whilst Chris Wyles also went over to give Sarries a crucial win over the Pro 12 side.

Saracens now head into their final Pool 1 match with Clermont Auvergne next Sunday knowing a win will see them overhaul the French side and seal their progress to the knock-out stages.

Reflecting on the win, McCall told the club’s website: “We know we were up against a team who have a history of raising their game, and we wanted to beat that team today.

“We needed a performance like that. That will give us a great belief, and despite the frustration that we didn’t get that fourth try it was a really good performance against a very good team.”

He continued: “Billy (Vunipola) was phenomenal today; he was a force of nature in attack and defence, in everything he did. I thought we had outstanding performances throughout the group.

I thought Wiggy (Richard Wigglesworth) was great today; he was magnificent and really set the pace, and the tone of the match. Chris Ashton, what an outstanding performance. Not his two tries, which were really good, but kicking game in the first 15, 20 minutes really put us in a strong position. He was superb.”