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Saracens players held positive talks over their futures

By Online Editors
PA

Saracens players have held positive talks about their future at the club, says hooker Tom Woolstencroft.

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The Gallagher Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup holders will play in the second tier of English rugby next season after accepting relegation to the Championship for repeated salary cap breaches.

Jamie George revealed on Thursday he would stay at Saracens and Woolstencroft, who signed from London Irish in 2018, has joined his fellow forward in committing long-term to Mark McCall’s side.

“Everyone wants to know what everyone is doing,” Woolstencroft said, ahead of Saturday’s home match with Sale.

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“They are your mates, people you get on with and work with every day and that is why a lot of us do it to play with our mates and play for this club.

“Generally the chats have been really positive and hopefully we can push forward.”

On his own future, the 25-year-old revealed: “For me personally I would relish the opportunity to bring the club back up to where we were and hopefully I can be part of that next year.”

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In November, Saracens were handed a 35-point deduction and fined £5.36million for breaching the salary cap rule in each of the last three campaigns.

Saracens talks

Two months later they were deducted a further 70 points, with their relegation to the Championship confirmed by Premiership Rugby too after they were found to have breached the salary cap this season.

It leaves little motivation for McCall’s men ahead of the final 13 league games of the term, but Woolstencroft disagrees.

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“We have spoken about this a lot as a team and for us there is still a lot to play for,” he added.

“Whilst it is not the Premiership as such, for us we are all still competitive athletes and all still want to win.

“Ultimately teams will now write us off as not being too interested, but that almost, particularly for the younger boys and boys coming through, really drives us to prove them wrong and put down a marker for ourselves and the team and prep for next year.”

Another part of Saracens’ motivation for the next few months is the chance to defend their Champions Cup crown.

The club are still in the competition after an independent disciplinary committee on Friday decided only to fine the holders 50,000 euros (£42,500) – half of which is suspended – for fielding an ineligible player in their January win over Racing 92.

It means Saracens will still travel to Leinster on April 4 for a Champions Cup quarter-final tie and McCall’s team only found out after losing at Sale last week in the Premiership Rugby Cup semi-final.

Woolstencroft said: “The boys still put in a great performance in that Racing game and we feel like we deserve that spot.

“For that to come through after the (Sale) game was a bit of nice news after a not so good loss.”

The hooker featured in the defeat on Friday and will be part of the side who face the same opposition again at Allianz Park on Saturday, this time in the Premiership.

“It’s a massive opportunity for us to right those wrongs,” the Bath academy graduate said.

Saracens received more bad news on Thursday when Allianz confirmed they would finish their sponsorship agreement with the club and their stadium at the end of the season.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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