Saracens rugby director Brendan Venter admitted he was less than thrilled by his team's performance despite a hard-fought 26-20 victory over Leicester at Vicarage Road.

The hosts battered Leicester to the brink of collapse but failed to put them away and ended up defending for their lives for a victory that looked a formality with 25 minutes to go.

"I'm a bit deflated to be honest because we should have had them and finished the job much earlier," said Venter. "Leicester were conceding penalties because we had the ball for sustained periods but we butchered a couple of sitters.

"We must learn to put teams away when we have outplayed them as much as we outplayed Leicester. I've told my guys that they are a much better team than they think. It's a matter of confidence but they must accept that last season was based on merit and we are getting better.

"If Leicester had been in that situation they would have come away with a winning bonus point for four tries and if you look at the league table they're always up there among the teams who get the most bonus points. They had a very difficult day here but yet they leave with a bonus point so I'm not very impressed about a 26-20 scoreline to the way we played."

When asked about sending his players for a team bonding trip to the Munich Beer Festival Venter added, "We planned the Munich trip well in advance of the Heineken Cup launch and we've already explained to all concerned why our captain Steve Borthwick also travelled to Germany.

"Even if we'd lost this game I'd see the trip as a success. And when you see how the players reacted when Leicester launched their fightback the togetherness and playing for each other was evident. Now we head into Europe, going down to Clermont Auvergne on the weekend on the back of four wins including Northampton and Leicester."

Leicester rugby director Richard Cockerill said he was proud of the way his players came back from what looked like a potential hiding. "I'm very pleased at how we reacted, the players showed great spirit, especially when we had guys in the sin-bin. It was difficult out there because Saracens got it right when we were a man short and played to the corners - but our boys never gave up.

"I thought we had a team to win this game but having seen it I'll take that losing bonus point. We have a number of players missing and we've played Northampton, Wasps and Saracens - so when everyone comes back I'm convinced we will get better."

Cockerill and his coach Matt O'Connor were less than impressed with French referee Romain Poite - with O'Connor launching a tirade from his seat in the stand five minutes from time that was abusive and included the words "cheating".

Radio Leicester instructed their commentator at the match to apologise to listeners that the language had been picked up by his microphone. But Cockerill said, "I was watching the game so I don't know what Matt said. But we're passionate people involved in top class sport and I don't remember reading anywhere that you're not allowed to shout your opinions."