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England and Lions have explained how Saracens debacle will impact selection
Saracens’ established England internationals are set to remain at the crisis-stricken club after being given the blessing of Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland to play in the Championship.
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The reigning English and European champions will be relegated at the end of the season as punishment for repeated breaches of the £7million salary cap, sparking fears of an exodus of stars wanting to protect their Test careers.
But the likes of Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola are poised to remain at Allianz Park after being reassured by England and the Lions that a season out of the Premiership will not harm their chances of selection.
Saracens have been in discussion with Jones and Gatland and see a campaign in the second tier of English rugby as similar to an All Blacks-style sabbatical that could prolong careers.
“The international players had a very clear view on what they wanted to do, all of them. Luckily enough that coincided with what we wanted as well,” director of rugby Mark McCall said.
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“Eddie is on the whole happy to select players who are established, Warren Gatland the same.
“A lot of our international players are proven international players and they see it as maybe a season where those players…you’ve seen New Zealand players having sabbatical-type seasons. It would be like that.
“Warren Gatland is keen to get as fresh a Lions team as possible to take to South Africa in 2021 and certainly our situation, in a funny kind of way, is going to help him.”
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Saracens’ England stars would play only a limited number of games in 2020-21 and while the details are still being thrashed out, it is hoped they will be finalised in time for the start of the Six Nations on Saturday week.
“A lot of these players have been on a treadmill for a long period of time and they get short off-seasons because they are always on tour,” McCall said.
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“They play a lot of games during the course of a season and most of our established internationals are 27, 28, so they are at that stage where they have been on this treadmill for 10 years
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“They are seeing this as a positive where next year can be one where they are freshened up, physically recover and get better, play enough rugby and go on a Lions tour at the end of it fresh – which is not normal.”
While clarity is forming at Allianz Park, it is unknown whether Saracens’ ‘financial doping’ will cause divisions in England’s squad for the Six Nations.
Jones is to hold clear-the-air talks upon arrival in Portugal on Thursday when players will have the opportunity to voice any grievances in the hope they can be addressed before the tournament opener against France on February 2.
"Saracens should not be able to have any say in whether another team makes it into the top four or top six"
– argues @AndyGoode10 https://t.co/zEaUJtcTm6
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 22, 2020
It has emerged that Saracens’ Premiership rivals, led by Harlequins, have been feeding Premiership Rugby’s salary cap officer information on the double winners, pointing to a potentially frosty meeting in the Algarve.
At the centre of the discussions will be Farrell, England’s respected captain and the Saracens playmaker.
“We don’t know yet, we have not met up as a team. We will see in the next few days,” said Farrell, who was speaking for the first time Saracens’ relegation was announced.
“We will be honest and up front about it and we will come through it and get on with what’s in front of us.
“I don’t think it will be difficult for me at all. We’re excited to get into camp and get on with the rugby.”
– AssociatedPress
Andy Goode and Brendan Venter didn’t hold back on this weeks pod as they discussed Saracens and the salary cap scandal:
Comments on RugbyPass
Omg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
127 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
127 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
127 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
127 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
127 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
127 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
127 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
127 Go to commentsHo hum.
127 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
127 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
127 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
127 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
127 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
127 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
127 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
127 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
127 Go to comments