They are set up to win a league - not playoffs.
They are a ruthless points accumulating machine.
The very thing that makes them so efficient during the regular season is the very thing that handicaps them in bigger games.
Let's pretend that a team's performance can be measured as a percentage. I.e. a game like the AB's vs Boks in Jo'burg last year was two teams playing close to 100% and a dead-rubber ****-fight between Worcester and Zebre would be closer to 20%.
Most teams performances will vary quite significantly in terms of range - Saints might be able to play 5 games - three of which will be 80%, one at 70% and another at 50%.
They will beat most teams comfortably at 80%, edge the same number at 70% and lose to most teams at 50%.
And example of that 50% game would be their loss against Sale - where Sale played well, and Saints looked tired and disorganised.
Let's say this range of performance applies to the top 6 in the premiership.
With their performances coming in waves, some teams like Tigers really take their time to grow into form... whereas Saints this year hit the ground running and then suffered a bit of a dip.
Sarries are exceptional in that they can play at that 80% for practically the entire season - from the first round to the last.
There isn't really a warming up period or a slowing down period - they are relentlessly hitting that 80%.
They may only drop below that 80% once or twice in a season.
This also applies within a game itself.
Sarries play at 80% from the first minute until the 80th.
Clermont do the exact opposite of this - they might spend the first 20mins at 60%. They'll maybe concede a hard earned try and a couple of penalties and probably earn one or two themselves.
For the next 20minutes they might step up the intensity to 70%... and so on.
They will almost certainly step up the intensity to a test level 90% for a 10-20 minute period where they will absolutely blow most teams away - after that they coast.
Most teams fall somewhere inbetween those two, in terms of acute periods of high intensity and consistency.
Sarries' consistency is also what kills them in big games - they don't have the ability to really get beyond that 80%.
And come the knockout stages of the Premiership and HEC other teams can - Saints vs Sarries at AP last year is a very good example of this.
They are set up perfectly on and off the pitch to win leagues - but aren't as well equipped as others to win knockout rugby.
Sarries aren't changing the way they do things either - but they are, year on year, bumping up that static 80% by one or two % a year.
So this might be the year they do it.
v 
