The Maro Itoje query George Martin had to settle before Saracens move

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall believes the statement signing of a “hungry” George Martin almost completes the jigsaw when it comes to their squad rebuild.

The England second row will arrive from Leicester next season in one of the most significant domestic moves of recent years.

And McCall thinks that with the stocks already available, it will set Saracens up for seasons to come.

“We’re really, really thrilled to bring George to the club,” said McCall. “He’s the perfect age – 24 – and already with a lot of experience behind him at club level and international level.

“He’s a real tough, abrasive, hard-hitting back-five forward who really complements some of the back five players that we have got at the club.

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“We were super impressed with him when we met him, just in what he wants to achieve in the years ahead and how hungry he is. He came across super well.

“We’re excited by the players we’re producing and we want to build from within as much as possible but occasionally you need to go to the outside as well.”

The lure of playing his club rugby alongside Maro Itoje in the Saracens engine room was one of the factors in Martin’s decision to make the switch according to McCall.

“I’m sure that was part of his thinking,” he said.

“He asked plenty of questions in the interview about the direction the club was going in and who he’d be playing with.

“But it wasn’t just Maro, he understood the age profile of the group. There’s a good group there now who are all in their mid-20s, really motivated and we’d like to keep that group together for the next two or three years and see what they can do together.

“The last time we had this scale of a rebuild was around 2015 to be honest and we managed to keep that group together for a while. Like any group, it gets to the end of its life cycle. Some of that group, Sean Maitland, Mako Vunipola, Billy Vunipola etc have all left the club.

“We’re 18 months into this next group. We’ve got plenty of youngsters coming through our academy, Jack Bracken, Tobias Elliott, Angus Hall, Noah Caluori, Nathan Mitchelow, Charlie Bracken… but we do know that we need the odd person from the outside to add value to the group.

“I think we’ve got a good few pieces of the jigsaw in place.”

Saracens back row Andy Onyeama-Christie predicts that the 1.98m, 127kg enforcer will fit in well at his new North London home.

“You want to get guys who are going to show the same characteristics of the people that have been here before and been successful before and you like to hope that George will be one of those people,” said Christie.

“He’s a super physical player, he works hard, he grafts and that’s the kind of person that you want to have in a team with you. He’s got a fair few caps considering his age.

“He’s had his injury issues and I know how that feels so I hope he overcomes them. I guess we will have faith he will overcome them well.

“It’s going to be an exciting introduction to the squad for sure.”

Martin is currently sidelined by shoulder nerve damage having last played in February against France when he won his 21st cap.

Leicester say, somewhat vaguely, he will be back in the New Year.

“He hasn’t given me a date when that’s going to happen but obviously we’ve done our due diligence and talked to all the people that we needed to talk to to be assured that everything was going to be fine from that point of view,” said McCall.