Saracens to hold crisis talks with Jones and Gatland as possible player exit strategy emerges
Saracens are to hold talks with Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland to discover what implications relegation to the Championship for breaching the Premiership salary cap will have for their high profile internationals, including Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Mako and Billy Vunipola.
With the 45-strong Saracens squad meeting individually on Monday and Tuesday with Mark McCall, the director of rugby, and interim chief executive Edward Griffiths, the ramifications of dropping down to the second division of English rugby needs to be established with Jones, the England head coach, and Gatland, who will be taking the British and Irish Lions to South Africa in 2021.
If both men insist the twelve internationals Saracens expect to be involved in next month’s Six Nations have to be playing at the highest possible level then that will shape the discussions over their immediate futures.
What has become clear is that the current “Galacticos” squad will not be reunited in 18 months’ time when Saracens return to the Premiership as cuts to the wage bill to satisfy the salary cap will need to be in place.
Patently, with Saracens having broken the £7million cap for the last four seasons – including this one – they cannot bring back the same big stars. McCall will have responsibility for shaping next season’s squad and the one that will be needed on the club’s return to the top flight in 2020/21.
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RugbyPass understands the meetings with McCall and Griffiths will be to establish what each player wants to do having been informed on Friday that another 35-point deduction would effectively relegate the club. The players were told to prepare for this scenario, although talks about exactly what happens next are still ongoing between Saracens and Premier Rugby.
Saracens look certain to operate with a younger squad in the Championship, with a spine of experienced players that will be supplemented the following season by those big-name players who opt to try and arrange the kind of loan deal that has seen England flanker Mark Wilson join Sale this season from Newcastle before returning to the Falcons next season.
Saracens’ decision to work on the basis they are already down is to allow their players to negotiate with other Premiership clubs before the end of January when next season’s squads will have largely been sorted out.
'The snowball is finally becoming an avalanche and the Saracens salary cap saga is undeniably now the biggest scandal ever to hit English club rugby'
– writes @AndyGoode10 https://t.co/AW7CJzRHB5
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 18, 2020
Leading players could opt for a season in the Championship if Jones and Gatland agree it will not harm their international chances with lower profile matches ensuring they are not tired at the end of the season – unlike their Premiership colleagues.
Griffiths told RugyPass: “Mark will make the decisions over the squad and if we were to be playing in the Championship we need to pick a squad that will benefit from playing there.
“In 20/21 you would want to put a squad together that is unequivocally compliant with the salary and is also as competitive as possible. Every squad moves on in a two-year period and I’m sure that will be the case with Saracens.
“I was asked back having been away five years to provide some assistance and I know a lot of people at the club. These are not ideal circumstances but I’m trying to help.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments