Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann felt that the boos directed towards Saracens players gave them an "easy motivation."
The Premiership champions put a difficult week behind them, which saw them handed a suspended 35-point deducted and fined £5.36million for breaching salary cap rules, by winning 21-12 at Kingsholm.
Ackermann was asked about the reaction of the home fans after the game and admitted his disappointment in his side's performance.
Read the full transcript of his post-match media conference below.
How much was it down to Sarries being very good or you not being at your best?
I would say it is a bit of both but you have to give credit to Saracens, it is 15 men going out on the pitch and what you ask for is for accuracy and that is exactly what they did.
They were accurate in their scrums and the maul opportunities and kicked for the corners and defensively they were tremendous and tactically out kicked us. If we kicked they were just better.
They handled the pressure from the week well and you have to give those 23 players credit and how they played on the field, the best way is to play your best rugby and be physical and they did it.
We started well but after the first few minutes where we couldn’t get points we had errors, lost the scrum battle on the first 50-60 minutes, lost some lineouts, we were not accurate and couldn’t get our game going.
Defensively, they were physical and you have to take it on the chin and face the fact that Sarries deserve the credit after what must have been a tough week.
Your challenge is trying to close the gap on Saracens, after today is that gap not as close as you thought it was?
This game is 15 guys on the field and if your attitude is a bit off then the other side is better than you. You need to be at the best and this competition has shown it week by week.
I think that Saracens have shown that they are better than us. If we want to catch them then we need to be as good as the pressure, they showed.
Whatever team they put out they have a DNA that works for them defensively, tactically and at set piece. Can we? I believe we can, we just need to start playing at our best.
Was Danny Cipriani 100 per cent today?
Yes, he was at 100 per cent he was ready to go and no excuse there.
You mentioned there how credit was deserved to the Saracens team. Are you disappointed to the way the Gloucester fans reacted with the chanting?
It is up to each person and I don’t know what the facts are between Saracens and the Premiership. You are going to open yourself up for criticism if that is the case, and we had a job to do on the field and that is the disappointing thing that we couldn't do that.
What the people off the field want to do then that is their own individual choice, I am sure that the supporters won’t be blind to know that the better team won.
You have a break from the Premiership. Are you looking to prepare any differently for Europe?
We have to find the way to back the alertness at the moment. We were slow and made a lot of silly errors with dropped balls and silly passes.
I know that we want to run at times but if we use the boot like we did today then we need to use that better. The new competition will bring a different challenge and a break for us.
Last season it kick-started our season and we really bounced back with five, six, victories in the Premiership and the guys got some life back and hopefully that will help us.
But it is a big challenge with Toulouse, with the talent that they have - 15,16 French internationals and they are a quality side - so we have to prepare well and we cannot change anything too much because it is Europe. If we want to compete, then Sarries showed tonight, that set piece, physicality and set piece is going to be crucial.
Mark McCall said earlier that his players were shocked when the announcement came out. Can you describe what your player’s reaction was and indeed your own reaction?
The rumours came a long time ago. I don’t know if the players talk with each other but we were quite open about it that there was nothing that we could do about it, it is something between Saracens and Premiership Rugby and obviously, we tried to deal with it as best as we can to say it is isn’t going to win the match for us.
We still need to prepare and we knew they were going to use it to an advantage for them and they showed that today. It showed that on the day your mental side is the biggest part and they showed that today.
Do you think that the stick that they had today is going to follow them throughout the season, and they can use it to their advantage?
Supporters are going differ from week to week, from a coaching point of view every team is going to challenge them. Off the field matters aren’t going to make a difference on the field, you have to prepare well and they showed tonight the quality and the depth that they have. Once their other players return again it is a thing between each club and how they want to deal with it.
I obviously have my opinion on the way forward with that but the reality is that at the moment we are not good enough, and if we want to be contenders we have to look at ourselves and fix a lot of things.
If you were a coach of a team that were being booed and hassled, you would love it, wouldn’t you? You can feed off of it?
I think that it is an easy motivation and a lot of teams will give them their motivational talk for them. It is still in my view if you look at any final like Saracens played the Leinster final (in the Heineken Champions Cup), it is 15 guys playing 15 guys and if you don’t perform and do your job you aren’t going to get your victory.
The same today, if we don’t play to the best of our ability then we aren’t going to give ourselves a chance to win and then it doesn’t matter what happens off the field, they can boo as much as they want but if they are a better side like today then they are going to win.
Is there a slight frustration that this issue is going to drag on into next year because of the appeal and there are concerns about the current squad, it showed today that without some key players they are still a strong side, does that feel as a coach you have to live with this hanging over the Premiership over the next few months?
We can only look at ourselves, we are in lines with the rules, we have our squad, we have our challenges from injury and we have to prepare the team as well as we can.
Saracens scandal
It is something that Saracens have to manage for the whole season now, how they are going to manage with the consequence with the penalties and the appeals and whatever is the way forward then from a coaching point of view all we want is a level playing field, it is as simple as that.
Whatever budget you have if you have more players or less players, it doesn’t really matter at the moment with the current situation. We have to play with what we have got and they have to play with what they’ve got and today were just the better side.
