Saracens youth product Andy Christie said that making his Premiership Rugby debut capped off a brilliant week, despite his side falling to an agonising 31-29 defeat at Worcester in the final round of fixtures.

Fresh from sealing their third European title in four years a week earlier, a much-changed Sarries side were cruelly punished by Duncan Weir’s last-gasp penalty, which sealed the win for the Warriors.

After helping Saracens Storm side claim the Premiership Rugby Shield earlier in the week, Christie came on for his first taste of top-flight action and remained upbeat, despite the ultimately disappointing result.

The back-rower told Sarries: “It’s the best feeling of the year so far for me. It’s been an unbelievable week and that’s just put the cherry on top.

“We were solid in defence and solid in attack, like we always are. They put it to us and it’s disappointing to get that result in the end but I’m unbelievably happy to have got on the pitch and I just want heaps more of it now.

“They had a very strong team out. They’re direct, they play wide well, and I thought they were impressive in defence – a lot of the time, it felt like running into brick walls.”

Following the conclusion to the regular season, all attention at Allianz Park is now firmly set on Saturday’s play-off semi-final at home to Gloucester as Mark McCall’s side look to add domestic success to European glory.

One of seven academy hopefuls to have been named on the bench at Sixways, Christie is confident the whole squad has a significant part to play in securing ongoing success at the club.

He said: “In the next week, we’ve obviously got one goal and that’s going to come through the whole squad. Everyone’s driving for that same target, everyone’s going for the same thing, and everyone wants the same result.

“Opportunities are great and now we’ve got to set our minds to what’s next week and what’s following on from that.”