Saracens' situation explained as prospect of relegation looms
English and European champions Saracens face the prospect of relegation as the salary cap scandal continues to blight the domestic season.
Here, the PA news agency examines the current state of play.
Why were Saracens initially punished?
For breaching the Premiership’s £7million salary cap for each of the last three seasons, resulting in a £5.36million fine and the docking of 35 points that leaves them in a relegation battle. There were calls for them to be stripped of titles but this was not within the range of sanctions available to Premiership Rugby (PRL), which manages the league.
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But they are still in trouble?
Yes. While the past three years were dealt with, the punishment failed to address the current season, for which they added England internationals Elliot Daly and Jack Singleton to their squad. Initially, their spending for 2019-20 was the elephant in the room, but there is now a clamour for them to prove they are within the limit observed by their rivals.
EXCLUSIVE:
Things appear to be going from bad to worse for Saracens this evening. https://t.co/B1h9bN8mPQ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 16, 2020
Were they not attempting to do this?
It took the re-appointment of Edward Griffiths as chief executive on January 2 for Saracens to change tact after two months of inertia since being hit with the fine and points deduction. The double winners’ original lack of contrition and defiance despite being found guilty of ‘financial doping’ riled their rivals. Griffiths sounded a different note, however, apologising on behalf of the club for the first time and admitting that either wages would have to be reduced or players offloaded to comply with the salary cap for the current campaign.
Why, then, the threat of relegation?
This is where details become hazy. The ante appears to have been upped at a PRL meeting on Tuesday when Saracens were given a week to prove they are operating within the £7million cap or face being demoted to the Championship regardless of their final points total. The extent to which they are over the cap has not been made public, but it is believed to be a substantial amount and Griffiths has found making the necessary reductions harder than expected. Saracens and their players face uncertain futures as patience runs out at PRL.
Not much tea and sympathy out there for Saracens https://t.co/vJS1ZP9seG
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 17, 2020
Can Saracens recover?
Even if they were able to make sudden, drastic, cuts to their wage bill in time to satisfy Exeter owner Tony Rowe and the rest of the Premiership, their reputation is in tatters. Nigel Wray has stepped down as chairman and has now severed all formal ties with the club, his initial indignation at the verdict and punishment handed down by PRL in early November sounding even more misjudged now than it did then. Saracens’ domestic titles will forever be tainted and even if they are spared relegation, it is hard to see how their ‘brand’ will recover.
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.
2 Go to comments