Mark McCall: Saracens director of rugby excited by 'new group' of players

Olly Hartley was one of the "exciting" youngsters highlighted by Mark McCall

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall has hailed the club's "exciting group" of youngsters emerging this season.

Fourth-placed Saracens take on Premiership leaders Sale, who they trail by two points, on Friday.

The west London club lost their opening two games of the season and embarked on a five-match winning run only to be halted by Northampton Saints in their last domestic match on 2 December.

"The squad is changing at the moment - we are excited about it," McCall said.

"We've got a new group and we are trying to forge ahead. I'm really excited about some of the young talent that we have got coming through."

McCall, who has been in charge of Sarries since 2011, highlighted the emergence of Toby Knight, Andy Christie, Theo Dan, Lucio Cinti, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Olly Hartley.

The performance of 21-year-old Hartley, in particular, was given special praise following his two tries in the 55-36 Champions Cup win against Connacht on Saturday.

"It's really exciting to watch their development and very exciting to watch our senior players support them and mentor them in the way that they are," McCall told BBC Radio London.

"There's a very exciting group of young talent here and it's our jobs to try to mould them into a great pack of forwards. If we can keep them all, and have them here for three years, then we have coaches who have done it with other packs - it's a really exciting group.

"We are at the start of that process and Sale (on Friday) is the next stage. It's a really good test, halfway through the season and Sale are going very well this year.

"They are incredibly physical and confrontational like they were last year and I definitely think they are playing a little bit more and playing with a a bit more width than they did last year."