WRW: TIME TO REASSESS SARACENS?
Or maybe not?
SARACENS RETURN
My early season nerves have been eased somewhat.
Not in terms of Leicester’s performances - so far, it’s been largely what I expected although seeing so much heads-up rugby has been a pleasure. It’s too early to say if everyone is taking up the mantle of Quins in that respect, but it would be different surely if the weather gods had been unkind.
But in North London, normal service has been resumed.
Saracens’ crushing of Bristol on opening night bodes ill for all else concerned in the Premiership, although Bristol’s thumping at Wasps last weekend might put it into context. Whoever was unavailable, the Saracens style has worked in its opening test.
Given their absence from the Premiership for a year, their restoration provides an opportunity to reassess all that has gone over the last 2 years. I went back to re-read the Dyson Report and then the Myners Review into how the Premiership manages the salary cap and see the effect time and distance has had on them.
What did Saracens do?
For three years, Premiership Rugby found that Saracens had exceeded the salary cap and in two of them, by over £1 million each; that in other years, documents were provided late and the main defence from the club? That it’s illegal to have a salary cap anyway….so see ya…
Saracens’ case that the RFU rule (that you have to be in England to play for England) created an anti-competitive market was rejected out of hand.
I am no lawyer, but that claim seemed baseless to those who are, especially with no court judgment or decision by the competition authority ever having suggested such a thing.
Chief executive Mitesh Velani and chairman Nigel Wray both suggested they supported a salary cap under cross-examination - just not the one in place. Evidence produced by PRL confirmed that Saracens supported the cap until around 2014.
All in all, the case sounded…weak.
Quoted in the tribunal, the salary cap manager reported that the famous co-investments in property were highly beneficial to the players - a view which was shared by the panel:
The only area in which Andrew Rogers, PRL’s Salary Cap Manager, was criticised, was that he alleged without evidence a conspiracy to avoid paying salary cap - but the tribunal offered no view either way on whether that was the case or not.,
TLDR: Saracens got creamed
What’s changed?
There really is no sense of penitence and maybe that’s because - if you read their biggest defender Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times - Saracens still feel as if they’ve not done much wrong. That they were the ones with hands caught in the cookie jar, but look Sir, he’s got 5-6 biscuits in his pockets.
They used to talk about “the Leicester way” especially in SW London, which would be in the tone of a Victorian governor exasperated by how little respect those colonial subjects paid him. They do things differently in the East Midlands, they’d say over a ridiculously expensive latte before picking up Tarquin and Josephine from day school.
I have that same level of exasperation talking about Saracens though and maybe it’s just me. If only Premiership Rugby had shown some backbone and insisted on Saracens relinquishing any claim to their titles, that might have gone some way to cauterising the wound.
But with the Londoners, the confidence is more grating, far from humble and much more in your face. It’s not necessarily the acts committed that stun, it’s the brazenness and the margins of breaching the cap that make breaking the rules seem highly corporate and organised in nature.
When you walk up the steps into the main stand at what is now the StoneX Stadium, you see paintings and memorabilia festooned around the walls, all of them celebrating their titles and successes. I can’t tell you how crass it looked in hindsight when I saw it earlier this year.
This isn’t marketing. This isn’t even “No one likes us, we don’t care.” This smacks of “we were right, you were wrong” and we don’t care we broke the rules to succeed. That’s what sticks in my craw.
It’s interesting to note that one aspect of the report dealt with a company who paid players for hospitality events, where there was no evidence of players attending. That company was run by Lucy Mercey, who resigned as a Saracens director after the report was published.
Mercey - daughter of Nigel Wray - is now chief executive
Her husband - who helped run the hospitality company - is now group commercial director at Saracens
Price paid? Perhaps, but in reality, it’s business as usual. At arm’s length, obviously.
FAIR PLAY
Sara Cox becomes the Premiership’s first female referee. Congratulations.
LICHFIELD LADIES UNDERWAY UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
Good luck to Lichfield Ladies now under new management…at least under the partnership with Leicester Tigers.
Mysteriously, it didn’t turn out to be Lichfield Leicester Tigers as billed..
Defeat in their opening game on Sunday came to West Park Leeds Ladies, by 31-19 but with West Park tipped to do well, let’s see how the team emerges.
What may be as important as the skills days for girls that Tigers are organising for next month. After all, establishing the pathway to a professional team needs as much work at the bottom of the pyramid than at the top.
But it’s fascinating to see the pieces being put in the jigsaw, including the appointment of England international Heather Fisher (pictured, above). If you’re looking for an inspiration, you could do a lot worse.
And if you want an example of how not to run a high performance programme in the women’s game, take a look across the Irish sea.
Instead Italy are going to the World Cup at Ireland’s expense.
STUFF YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
If you’re going to do a photoshoot of the captains, make sure you invite all the captains.
England players are due to play in all three Autumn Internationals this November, in contrast to the agreement with the clubs.
It is their decision we are told, but should it be…?Sensible stuff from World Rugby on managing contact levels within training
And the new Samoan franchise in Super Rugby has its home base established for the next seven years…it’s in Auckland..
See you for Saracens on Saturday
Chris
They should have been relegated and then had the points deduction applied in consecutive years - one year for every year they cheated. I reckon that would have seen their illegally assembled squad break up.
Totally support your words re Saracens well said ! I still wonder how the team they have with all their remaining “ supa stars” fits within the salary cap now . Their “ suvven “ arrogance “ sticks up my “ craw” too I think I may not be alone in that belief .Keep up your good work Chris great read as always 👍👍👌👌