Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston says his side’s fate is in their own hands despite their Aviva Premiership Rugby loss to Saracens.

Kingston’s side went down 40-19 at Wembley Stadium, a defeat which leaves them sixth in the division.

James Horwill notched Quins' only try of the contest, while the hosts ran in four courtesy of Chris Ashton, Schalk Brits, Michael Rhodes and Alex Goode.

Director of rugby John Kingston lamented Harlequins’ mistakes, but is still adamant that his side are in a great position to achieve their target of a top-six Aviva Premiership Rugby finish.

He said: “I said several weeks ago that the big thing for me is to try and get into the Champions Cup, however I am aware of the Bath Rugby v Leicester Tigers result and we’re still only five points from fourth.

“We’re in a better position for that than we’ve been in the last two or three years; we’ve got two big games coming up so it’s in our control.

“We’re at home the next two games and when we’re at home at The Stoop, we expect to win.

“We’ve lost one league game there this year and yes, Exeter Chiefs and Wasps are good sides, but at home with a lot of our big players available; my expectation is that we will win those games.”

North London outfit Saracens booked an Aviva Premiership Rugby semi-final spot and kept up the pressure on second-placed Exeter Chiefs in the battle for a home fixture with the win.

Sarries have now only lost once in ten games at Wembley Stadium and looked in control for large periods.

But it was the defensive effort that pleased McCall most, and he singled out his players’ fighting spirit approaching the business end of the season.

“It was a hugely pleasing performance, we’re going big game after big game and last week was huge for us,” he said. “We had a six-day turnaround and to show some of the qualities that we showed today was great.

“Not all of our rugby was perfect but the fighting qualities, the effort that everyone put in, the shift they put in, it was a huge defensive effort particularly in the second half.

“I thought in the first half we had a lot more control but in the second half we did a lot of defending, a lot of time without the ball and the players were magnificent.

“The first seven months are about getting to this position, getting into a strong position in both of the competitions that we’re interested in and thankfully we managed to win a quarter-final of the champions cup last week.

“We’re in a decent position entering these last two months in Aviva Premiership Rugby, there’s a lot of things to be excited about now.”