Alex Austerberry: Saracens have 'risen the bar' with latest PWR success

“We were at the top, I think, slightly longer than Gloucester Hartpury,” Alex Austerberry smirked.

Saracens‘ Director of Women’s Rugby had waited a long time to take the North London club back to the top of English rugby. In Premiership Women’s Rugby‘s early days, when it was still Premier 15s and novelty bags of crisps were given as Player of the Match awards, his team were unstoppable.

In 2018 and 2019 his team finished the season with the trophy. Covid-19 curtailed the 2019/20 season, and in 2021 they were beaten by Harlequins at Kingsholm Stadium. That loss was just a speed bump and, one year later, they beat Exeter Chiefs.

Austerberry, quite rightly, brings up the pandemic stop-gap that accounts for Saracens’ longer stay as queens of England.

For the past three years Gloucester Hartpury have been undisputed at the top. The West Country club are the only team to have beaten Saracens all season.

The Circus’ dramatic post-Guinness Women’s Six Nations fall from grace meant that Trailfinders were the opponents at the Twickenham Stoop.

Barney Maddison’s team were well beaten 52-14. Saracens were ruthless as they claimed their first English league title in four years. And Saracens are back where they belong.

“Gloucester were superb champions for three years in a row and that has risen the bar – we’ve taken it a bit further as well,” Austerberry said.

“I’m immensely proud of the girls. But now we have targets on our back and we’ve got to make sure that – what, 40 minutes after full-time – we keep pushing forward because that’s what champions do.”

That desire to win, and win often, says plenty about Saracens. Last year they were the beaten finalists as Emma Sing, Maud Muir and Natasha Hunt rained terror down on them to complete a never-seen-before three-peat at StoneX Stadium.

For almost the entirety of this season you could see that Austerberry’s team were brooding over that loss and wanted to end four years of disappointment.

Austerberry added Kévin Rouet to his squad. He had worked with the Canada head coach at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. Only England could unpick the North Americans’ attack. Rouet, as its architect, was the perfect person to take Saracens to the next level too.

There were also four players in the Saracens matchday squad that have, in the space of nine months, won the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Women’s Six Nations and now PWR. Winning is everything.

“It’s [winning] is very much engrained in everything,” Austerberry said. “I always it is the team that work the most and are the fastest that goes on to win.

“We’ve got players, we’ve got staff, here chomping at the bit to find ways to win. Whether there’s marginal gains or whether it be evolution of style and play.

“We’ve been beaten, certainly in last year’s final by the better team but the bounce back and learning into this year has been fantastic.”

The final whistle on Sunday was the moment that Saracens said goodbye to a club legend. For nine years Marlie Packer was at the heart of anything that the North London side did. She was integral to their three PWR titles of yesteryear.

Two tries at the Twickenham Stoop, the place she will call home from next season with Harlequins, was the perfect way to bow out.

“She’s absolutely excellent,” Harrison said. “I’m sure you can see at the final [whistle] when she went down, the whole team came around her.

“It’s going to be someone that we do miss and maybe don’t wish that she was leaving.

“She’s been a great part of my Saracens career, and a lot of the girls’ Sarries career. She is a great leader. She will be missed.”