Chris Ashton stumbled slightly when he was asked why he was leaving Saracens for Toulon at the end of the season. The most direct of runners took a circuitous route as he pondered the answer to a question which was inviting him to explain why he was swapping the dominant club in Europe for the one they had supplanted and which was on its third head coach of the campaign.
Ashton, like David Strettle two years ago, is not so much leaving Saracens as England, frustrated at his international isolation and two long bans in the past 18 months, although the first came after a Champions Cup match against Ulster. Other established squad members will not be playing for the club next season, but Neil de Kock, Petrus du Plessis, Jim Hamilton and Kelly Brown are retiring. Few leave for another club voluntarily.
In their consistent period in the first half of the professional era Saracens collected big names in the way they now collect trophies: the likes of Michael Lynagh, Francois Pienaar, Philippe Sella and Thomas Castaignède played for the men in black, but the club’s recruitment then was unscientific. Just as Mourad Boudjellal took Toulon from obscurity to the top of the European summit by lightening his wallet, so Sarries were unfocused by stardust, able to spend lavishly because their owner was prepared to soak up losses.
They still recruit heavy hitters, but the likes of Du Plessis, Chris Wyles, Schalk Brits and Michael Rhodes, unheralded when they arrived at Saracens, are as fundamental to the club’s success as more celebrated team‑mates. The change in the recruitment policy, instigated by Brendan Venter and taken on by Mark McCall, has been responsible for a team known for its frivolous form maturing into double European champions.
Saracens were a team of individuals then, but their strength now is collective. Players are not signed on a whim, a flash of form or because they have been part of a World Cup-winning team, and there is an emphasis on development from within. Players have to fit in at a club which is all about the whole. Ashton might not have been the most obvious target when he arrived from Northampton five years ago, a player with a maverick streak who had not been easyto manage, but because Saracens did their homework on him, the move was always far more likely to succeed than fail.
Saracens have not suddenly suppressed individualism; they have a squad stuffed with big, hard characters, many of whom have succeeded at the highest level, but they are a team in every sense of the word. When Clermont Auvergne fought back to one point behind with a breakaway try at the end of the third quarter, having been largely outplayed, the response from the holders was typically robust.
After they had defeated Munster in the semi-final in Dublin, Saracens flew the players to Barcelona for 36 hours. The club has long had stayaways for the squad to turn playing colleagues into friends. The bond showed at the only point in the game on Saturday when the result was in doubt: Schalk Burger would not have envisaged sitting on the bench in a major final when he arrived from South Africa last summer, but when he replaced the excellent Jackson Wray, he was instantly at the opposition with the determination of a man intent of packing 80 minutes into 20; there was no hint of self-pity.
The manner in which Saracens have put together their squad, along with a relatively low average age, suggests success will be sustained. Only three teams have won Champions Cup tournaments that have started this decade: Leinster for two years in a row, Toulon three and now Saracens have retained the trophy. Before, only Leicester had achieved back-to-back successes, at the beginning of the 2000s.
There was talk of a dynasty then with the Tigers dominant in Europe and England, the best supported club and the most successful. TheyLeicester had a similar approach then to recruitment as do Saracens today – looking to identify players who would fit in – but Leicester have since fallen behind, along with the club that has won the European Cup the most, Toulouse, who this season finished one place above the relegation zone in the Top 14.
Leinster failed to make the knock‑out stage of the Champions Cup last season and Toulon had an unseemly scramble into the last eight in January. The French club is looking to adopt Saracens’ model of player development combined with acquisition rather than merely raiding the southern hemisphere every year.
Toulon beat Saracens in the final in Cardiff three years ago. A memory of that day is Owen Farrell being unable to contain his frustration and barking abuse at Jonny Wilkinson. Farrell still has his moments, but there is no more influential player on the European club scene, a decorated individual who puts the club first; the now archetypal Saracen.
