AFTER seeing his side start the 2009/10 campaign with three successive victories, Saracens Director of Rugby Brendan Venter now has his eyes firmly set on the visit of Gloucester to Vicarage Road on Sunday, kick off 3pm. The 22-9 victory at Harlequins was

AFTER seeing his side start the 2009/10 campaign with three successive victories, Saracens Director of Rugby Brendan Venter now has his eyes firmly set on the visit of Gloucester to Vicarage Road on Sunday, kick off 3pm.

The 22-9 victory at Harlequins was Sarries third win of the season - the best start the club has made to a league campaign since the 1998/99 season.

But Venter knows that his side need to increase their performance levels and build on the start to the season ahead of Sunday's first 'home' game of the season.

He said: "It has been fantastic to play at Twickenham and Wembley but, Watford is our home. It is our fortress and we must build on that good start to the season. We've had fantastic support in all three games so far this season and it will be great to see so many of them back 'home' on Sunday and I know they will be at Vicarage Road in their thousands to support the team."

Another impressive defensive display in the first half at Harlequins built the platform for a Saracens victory with the game levelled 6-6 at half time.

"For all the rugby that Quins played in the first half, to come in at 6-6 at the interval was a great result for us," said Venter. "Paul Gustard our defensive coach has done so well with the players and it was another good performance in that department. They never really had that many clear-cut chances and when they did, we scrambled well to cover. That's not something you can really teach the players, that's something they must have the will to do and they showed it.

"We need to perform at this level every week and that's what I've told the players. We are enjoying the wins but we're not patting ourselves on the back just yet, there's still another 37 of these games to go this season."

The Director of Rugby also praised the performance of Derick Hougaard on his full debut which saw the fly half kick 17 points - including a drop goal from halfway.

"When Derick got the ball, I was screaming at him to put it back into Quins territory, but when I saw what he'd done, I said it was a great decision," joked Venter. "It was a good performance from Derick and we are lucky to have him and Glen Jackson in the fly half spot.

"We've still got plenty to work on and we have still to unleash the likes of Kameli Ratuvou and Brad Barritt in midfield, but we are building a good platform and I am pleased with our progress.