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Saracens captain Brad Barritt has revealed the loss of key members of the club’s high-profile squad following their relegation to the Championship next season has left him deeply frustrated heading into their delayed Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against favourites Leinster in Dublin on the weekend of September 18.
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Thanks to their well-documented relegation for breaching the Gallagher Premiership salary cap, Saracens have to complete the defence of their Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup titles with a much-depleted squad once the delayed season resumes next month.
Saracens were facing a formidable challenge against the top ranked team in Europe before the pandemic struck and took the season past its normal cut-off point for contracts. Now, they will head to Dublin without internationals Liam Williams, Nick Tomkins, Will Skelton, Rhys Carre, Nick Isiekwe, Ben Earl, Jack Singleton, Alex Lozowski, George Kruis, Alex Goode and Ben Spencer along with promising back Max Malins, who have all moved to new clubs in England, Wales, France and Japan.
Despite facing a season in the Championship, Saracens have brought in Wales scrum-half Aled Davies and agreed short-term deals to keep Barritt and Richard Wigglesworth, their two most experienced players, who have been kept on the books until October. Davies has been joined by a group of Championship players signed by Saracens to ensure that the remaining stars including Owen Farrell, Billy and Mako Vunipola and Maro Itoje do not have to play more than a handful of matches in the second tier of the English game when next season starts.
Those key international players will be on duty against Leinster to give Saracens fans some comfort and Barritt said: “It is incredibly frustrating. We would have loved to have had a final dance with everyone in the squad who got us there but we are in exceptional times and all the rule books have been thrown out of the window. At this point we are happy and lucky to just be able to play the game. A few months ago it looked as if this whole season was going to be scrapped.
“Fundamentally, I believe the ingredients are still there and we have an incredible hotbed of talent and the academy is still doing an incredible job. Saracens will be starting a new era and it will be about wiping the slate clean with a year in the Championship but it won’t be a walk in the park. There is still a strong core and ethos about what Saracens is about. The team doesn’t want to go into the Leinster game undercooked.“
Barritt believes the Lions would do well to look at what he describes as, “three core guys” when it comes to picking a captain for next year’s British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa. The former England centre said: “Owen Farrell is the England captain, Maro Itoje has been an integral part of that leadership group and so has Jamie George, so ultimately the captain is figurehead and you require leaders across the park. The Lions in 2021 will have a host of leaders.”
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Barritt insists that Saracens’ draconian fine and subsequent relegation for breaching Premiership rules has not “tainted” his time at the club and while he has ruled out continuing playing in the UK, the inside-centre could take up a contract with a South African Super Rugby side that means he could face the Lions next year. He was called up as a Lions replacement on the 2013 tour to Australia. “I haven’t ruled out playing back in South Africa but my career playing in the UK is over.” added Barritt.
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments