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'End of an era' - McCall confirms Saracens squad will be broken up
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall has confirmed the double winners’ squad must be broken up after acknowledging the “end of an era” at Allianz Park.
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The crisis-stricken north London club will be relegated from the Gallagher Premiership at the end of the season as punishment for breaching salary cap regulations.
When given the choice of opening up their books for a forensic audit and handing back trophies for the triumphant years of 2018 and 2019 or accepting demotion to the Championship, they opted for the latter.
They had already received a 35-point deduction and £5.36million fine for exceeding the £7million limit for each of the last three seasons, but their rivals’ patience over attempts to reduce their wage bill ran out.
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WATCH: The European champions have failed to adhere to the league’s salary cap for the past three seasons.
Saracens can at least defend their Champions Cup crown after defeating Racing 92 27-24 to reach the quarter-finals, but stars such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and the Vunipola brothers might not be present beyond May.
“Of course there are going to be changes,” said McCall, who confirmed he would like to remain at the club.
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“There’s no doubt the bunch of players we’ve got in our squad now aren’t going to be the same bunch of players we have in the Championship next year. That’s for sure.
“In many ways this is the end of that era that dates back to the start of 2009. We have got some time to plan for a new era, a new journey, and that is the optimistic way of looking at it.”
While England can pick players competing in the Championship, there is no precedent for it and McCall admits there will be discussions with Eddie Jones over what he wants from his stars.
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Saracens issue club statementhttps://t.co/JYHsVkA2jP
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Saracens supplied six starters for last autumn’s World Cup final defeat by South Africa and would have been widely represented in Warren Gatland’s 2021 Lions squad but for relegation.
England may choose to activate their exceptional circumstances rule to enable them to pick the likes of Farrell and Itoje even if they have agreed contracts to play in France or Japan.
Saracens are seeking urgent talks with Jones and Gatland to shape discussions with their players.
“Every player has got a slightly different situation,” McCall said.
Saracens v Racing 92 – Heineken Champions Cup – Pool Four – Allianz Park” />
“We’ll also have to talk to Eddie Jones and see what he thinks, in terms of his established players from Saracens and the younger ones. Is he prepared for people to be playing in the Championship?
“Someone like Ben Earl we’d like to keep at the club for the next five years but he’s so close to getting on the England team so we’ve got to see where Eddie’s head is at and where Ben’s head is at.
“There’s a Lions tour at the end of next season so we have to talk to Warren Gatland about what he would like from the Saracens players who are in contention. There’s a bit to be done.
“It’s important that that we make decisions with the players, not for them. Keep the players against their will is never going to work. We need to see how the meetings go next week and see where some players’ thoughts are.
“The players were told on Friday morning that what’s occurred was the probability. They’ve had 48 hours to think about it.
“They need to feel what they feel and it’s possible that how they feel in a few days’ time might be different as well.
“We will meet every player next week as a first off to see how they are feeling. It won’t be straight forward.”
In a statement released on Sunday, Saracens apologised unreservedly for the salary cap scandal, adding “our goal is to rebuild confidence and trust”, while club captain Brad Barritt offers a player’s perspective.
“People have given their lives to this club, the better part of their career. Everyone is hugely disappointed. Everyone is devastated about it,” Barritt said.
“This is something we’ve all grown up loving. In many ways we don’t go into it to make money.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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