Exclusive: Owen Farrell says Saracens are hoping to 'be better' in this season's Investec Champions Cup

Owen Farrell is hoping Saracens can undo the heartache of their Investec Champions Cup quarter-finals exit last season, insisting his side "want to be better" and progress to the later rounds of the tournament.

While challenging at the top of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby table, Saracens are also gearing up for their first Champions Cup match, which will see them travel South Africa to take on the Bulls on December 9.

Despite winning the Premiership last season, Farrell's side were knocked out of European competition after suffering a 24-10 defeat away to eventual winners La Rochelle in the last-eight.

While the fly-half was unable to give a prediction on who could go on to win this year's tournament, he was backing Saracens to improve on their performances last season.

When asked if his side could challenge for the title this season, Farrell told TNT Sports: "We'll see. I don't want to even say yeah, we'll do this that and the other.

"But we'll see how we get on. We got to the quarter-final last season and got beaten by a great team away from home in La Rochelle.

"We want to be better than that. We want to be winning those games in the back end of the tournament. We want to give ourselves a chance and we'll have to work hard to be within a shout of doing that."

There will be plenty of competition for the title, with Saracens set to play the Bulls, Connacht, Bordeaux and Lyon in their opening pool-stage matches.

Speaking on how difficult the competition will be this season, the England captain admitted there were three teams who could pose a big threat.

"It's always tough to say before the competition starts because anything can happen," he said.

"But the usual ones would be over the past few years, La Rochelle, Leinster and Toulouse - they would be three stand-outs over the past few years."

Saracens have bolstered their squad during the summer, signing Argentina internationals Juan Martin Gonzalez and Lucio Sinti.

And Farrell lumped praise on the pair for how well they have settled into the squad, saying: "The two lads we've signed, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Sinti, so they've been doing well getting integrated into our squad. Juan Martin's already played a couple of games and has been phenomenal."

A little over a month ago, England were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup following an agonising defeat against South Africa. Despite bowing out of the tournament in such tough fashion, Farrell hoped the World Cup will help to promote the sport.

"I think around a World Cup there is excitement built up for months before the tournament, and obviously going past the final," he said.

"So we're still on the back of that at the moment, and hopefully that gets more eyes on the game and more people involved in general. Like you can see, some of the countries and the way they have performed - you can see the momentum that has given the country, never mind just rugby. It's been phenomenal."

The fly-half also ranks third as the leading points scorer in the history of the Champions Cup, 496 points behind Ronan O'Gara, who sits in first place and 34 points behind Stephen Jones in second.

But the Saracens captain admitted that breaking those records to become the all-time leading points scorer in the competition is not on his immediate radar.

"No, it's not something I think about anyway," he said,

"I only heard it get mentioned the other week myself. But to be in and around that with the history of the competition and the history of the people that have played in the competition and the history of the people that have played in the competition - it is an honour. Hopefully, I've got a long time left in it still."

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