SARACENS boss Alan Gaffney pulled no punches in the post-match inquest of his side's semi-final capitulation to Bath.

Visibly upset by what had just transpired on the pitch, the director of rugby lamented an 'abysmal' first half showing from his side after they shipped four tries.

"We have to sit down and look at what went wrong," said the shaken Aussie. "We have not conceded four tries by half time at all this season and our defence is the second or third best in the Premiership. But to do what we did in the first half was just abysmal. We made more than our fair share of mistakes."

"We put enormous pressure on ourselves and the amount of ball we controlled in the first half was limited," he added. "We didn't play the game we wanted to and therefore didn't give ourselves the opportunity.

"We made some schoolboy errors and you can't do that against a Premiership side. We played some good rugby in the second half but we made more silly mistakes and some foolish decisions. As a result, we got what we deserved. It's extremely disappointing as we've said all along we wanted to win this competition."

Gaffney, who withdrew scrum-half Neil de Kock at the interval after the South African picked up a slight shoulder knock, must now rally his side for next weekend's final league match at Worcester where a win would cement a play-off spot.