Mark McCall was not impressed with his Saracens side’s discipline as they were beaten 18-9 by a resurgent Bath in the Gallagher Premiership.

Saracens were downed by the boot of Rhys Priestland, who kicked all of Bath’s points on Friday, showing far better form from the tee than Alex Lozowski, who managed to slot three penalties but missed four.

Saracens gave away 20 penalties in total though McCall noticed a marked second-half improvement from his side despite slumping a fourth successive away defeat. 

But the Premiership champions saw a losing bonus point slip through their fingers as they failed to get within seven of Bath, allowing Exeter Chiefs to take an eight-point lead at the top of the table.

"In the first half we were really poor. We lost all the collisions, gave away a lot of penalties. I thought we were much better in that regard in the second half,” said the director of rugby.

"We put Bath under more pressure and got down their end more often to give ourselves a chance to get something out of the game, but our set-piece let us down.

"Alex [Lozowski] has kicked well for us for many matches. We had chances with ten minutes to go to level things while they had a man in the sin-bin.

"It was a golden opportunity for us, which we blew. We lost our losing bonus point too, which was hugely frustrating."