Six Premiership titles, three Champions Cup, a coaching back catalogue of big games and even bigger victories.

But Mark McCall does not highlight any of those achievements.

Instead the Saracens boss selects the elephant in the trophy cabinet.

Back in 2020, at the height of their powers, his team were relegated from the Premiership and fined more than £5m for repeated breaches of the top-flight salary cap.

"That whole episode is weirdly the thing that makes me proudest," McCall told Rugby Union Weekly.

"You think you are part of something half decent, but you do not know until you are properly tested."

With a British and Irish Lions tour on the horizon, and Saracens bound for the Championship, it was assumed there would be an exodus. Instead Saracens' stars stayed put.

Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly, and Mako and Billy Vunipola dutifully served out a single-season spell in the second tier. Emerging prospects Max Malins and Ben Earl went to Bristol, but only on short-term loans.

"Everyone wanted to help us get back on our feet… and that allowed us to become stable again," said McCall.

Is McCall not tempted to stay on and see if more silverware and a second golden era is in the pipeline?

"No, there is a certain energy you need to do this job and, at times, I have realised that although it is OK, [mine] is not what the team need," he said.

"I think the team need the new energy they are going to get from [incoming director of rugby] Brendan [Venter]."

McCall said his goodbyes to the StoneX Stadium after last Saturday's win over Harlequins. "A lot of fuss" is how he characteristically, but fondly, describes the guard of honour and dressing room send-off.

McCall's legacy is more than trophies though. A clutch of young coaches have emerged from under his wing to take on jobs elsewhere.

Paul Gustard, currently flying high in the Top 14 with Stade Francais, Sale boss Alex Sanderson and England head coach Steve Borthwick were all proteges.

As he heads out of the hot seat, he would like to see more support for those who follow in his, and their, wake.

"It is a great job, but it is a job like no other, in that it can make you feel self-doubt, make you uncertain. The losses can be hard to bear sometimes," he said.

"I have learned how to deal with that, but younger coaches need more support.

"There is a toll to the job, and I can see that toll on a younger coach sometimes."

McCall is carrying that pressure, purpose and privilege for the final time. If he can carry it all the way to a seventh Premiership title it may be the sweetest victory of the lot.