British and Irish Lions fly-half Owen Farrell insisted past heartbreak was the key motivating factor as he and his Saracens side tasted domestic success at Twickenham on Saturday.
Farrell, who made his Lions test debut two years ago as the tourists secured a series victory over Australia in Sydney, has endured an injury-hit campaign.
But he was back to his best on Saturday afternoon, gaining the man of the match award after contributing 18 points including touching down for the opening try as Saracens ran out 28-16 winners over Bath.
They were made to stand firm against a comeback from the West Country outfit after the break though as Bath outscored their opponents 13 points to three.
But Saracens, who lost out at the same stage last year to Northampton Saints, held on leaving Farrell proud of his side’s battling qualities.
“It’s been a good season for us. We’ve had to work hard to get to where we are today,” he said.
“It’s pulled us tighter as a group and it’s made us work harder. We felt good going into this game.
“We’ve drawn on a couple of experiences we’ve had before and thankfully we’ve come good on the day.
“We built a good lead. We had to stay on it in the second half, not everything went our way.
“We knew they were going to come at us and throw everything at us from the start of the second half which they did and thankfully we did our job and got the win.”
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