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What England teammates told Saracens players at 'clear-the-air' meeting

By Online Editors
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

England enter the Guinness Six Nations with a united squad after addressing any grievances over Saracens’ salary cap scandal, described by Jonny May as the “elephant in the room”.

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All 34 players gathered in the dining room at England’s Algarve training base to clear the air in the wake of revelations that Saracens have exceeded the limit for player wages in five of the past seven seasons.

The Premiership and European champions are to be relegated at the end of the season for breaching the £7million limit for 2019/20, raising the prospect of influential stars such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Mako Vunipola being the subject of ill will from their international team-mates.

But at a 30-minute meeting attended only by players – Jones and his coaching team were excluded – the seven-strong Saracens contingent were reassured there were no grudges.

“The tone was that there is obviously an elephant in the room so let’s just have a quick chat about it or however long we need to talk about it,” May said.

Continue reading below…

Eddie Jones and England captain Owen Farrell at the Six Nations tournament launch

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“From what I have seen all the players are fine. Nobody needs to be worried. They are going to get a plan in place.

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“I’m sure the Saracens players will turn it into a positive no matter what happens. Those are the sorts of guys we are talking about.

“We reinforced to them that they have got our support, nobody thinks badly of them and nobody judges them.

“It is just a case that they want to be open with us and we want to be open with them. It’s worth talking about, but it really is not an issue from my perspective. We are here so it is worth addressing because it is quite disruptive what’s gone on. It’s been huge.

“It’s worth just knowing the Saracens guys are going through a tough time. No one here is judging them and no one thinks much about it other than they are great players and we are pleased to have them here.

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“I guess if you were involved in it you would be thinking, ‘God what do these guys think of me?’ That’s never the case. It’s always worse in your head than it actually is in reality.

“It’s probably more for them, just going, ‘you know what guys, this is not a big deal for us. You are great players and we’re really pleased to have you here, anything you need from us, we are your team-mates and we will support you.”

England’s new forwards coach Matt Proudfoot, linking up with the squad for the first time, echoes May’s view on the impact Saracens’ ‘financial doping’ has had on the squad as they begin preparations for the Six Nations opener against France.

“The players have had a chat. It was players only,” said Proudfoot, Steve Borthwick’s successor as forwards coach. “I’m new to the camp but from a coaching perspective, the interaction between the players has been really good.

“I’ve been trying to forge relationships with the players and been watching them sitting around the table talking and having banter. They’ve been very jokey like any rugby players are. I took that as being very positive.”

– Press Association

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J
Jon 6 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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j
john 9 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.

36 Go to comments
A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

36 Go to comments
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