The Défense Arena is an appropriately named venue for Saracens to start the defence of the European Champions Cup they won after a memorable comeback against Leinster in the final in May at St James’ Park. They launch their campaign against Racing 92 on the defensive after being docked 35 league points and fined £5m for unspecified breaches of the Premiership’s salary cap regulations.
Saracens have until the start of next week to appeal against the decision of an independent panel and the parameters of challenging a verdict that surprised the club’s long-serving chairman, Nigel Wray, are so narrow the scales of justice look tilted against them. Wray maintains the investment schemes he operates with a number of his squad have nothing to do with the salary cap because of the element of risk they carry.
Rival clubs have accused them of cheating and there have been calls, together with a threat of boycotting matches against Saracens if they proceed with the appeal, for them to be automatically relegated. Yet the details of the five-day hearing and the evidence gathered against the club have not been made public, a decision that has left Saracens unrepresented in the court of public opinion.
“Everyone knows there is a cut-off point for the appeal to be launched and it is not far away,” said Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby. “We will know when we know. It will be a heck of a challenge if the points deduction remains as it is: the challenge would be to avoid relegation, something we have not experienced as a group. We would get our head around it and relish it if it happens, but we do not know for definite yet.
“There are strong relationships at this club, developed through the cohesion and continuity we have built and they will see us through what will undoubtedly be a difficult period.”
McCall has picked only four of the side who started the final against Racing. The only two of his players who featured in the World Cup final at the start of the month named in the 23 are the scrum-half Ben Spencer, who was in Japan for only the final week, and Vincent Koch, the prop who was on South Africa’s bench in Yokohama. England’s third hooker, Jack Singleton, who only featured in one match, makes his first full appearance after joining from Worcester (along with the Wales prop Rhys Carré) but Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly, the Vunipola brothers, Jamie George, Maro Itoje and George Kruis are rested and will return to full training next week before the home match against Ospreys next Saturday.
The message, given that Racing have been in two of the past four Champions Cup finals and are one of the few French clubs who take the tournament as seriously as the Top 14, appears to be that Saracens are making Premiership survival their priority and do not want to be distracted by Europe in the final months of the campaign. But they are a club who operate on a different level to others. They had 15 players involved in the World Cup, but they have yet to lose away this season, winning at Wasps, Northampton, Leicester and Gloucester. They will not willingly release their grip on a trophy they cherish.
“One of the positive things this season has been the performances of some of the younger players,” McCall said. “We are in a strong position to rotate the squad heavily over the next 10 weeks and we will do so not because we have to but because we can. We had big decisions to make before the points deduction over our players who were busiest during the World Cup: we have to make sure they are physically and emotionally in the right place when they come back. What we have shown is that we will be putting out strong teams in all the games we play. We have a very tight group that has been together for a long time.”
Saracens’ first match after the punishment was at Gloucester, not the most welcoming of places even when the weather is set fair never mind with storm clouds overhead. The Shed waved fake £50 notes as Saracens ran on to the field and sang a few insults but had nothing to shout about because the visitors, inimitably, squeezed the life out of their hosts.
“We talked about the Gloucester match being the first opportunity we had after the verdict to show unity,” McCall said. “We did that. What was interesting was talking to the players about what fuelled the performance: a lot of people outside the group thought it was down to some anger or bitterness, but they believed it was powered by togetherness, the care they have for each other and how much the club means to them. Adversity tests what you say you are and we are in a bit of adversity. We cannot control what people say but we can control how we react.”
Racing’s starting side contain 13 internationals, including Virimi Vakatawa, Finn Russell, Maxime Machenaud and Eddy Ben Arous, but they have won only one home match this season. “They have all their players back and are a force to be reckoned with,” McCall said.
“It is a pretty tough pool, as they all are, and we will be at Thomond Park in a few weeks. It is a group for us to be excited by and we are not going to operate for the next eight months by being angry at the world. There are a number of upsides to what we are going through; we have not got the calculators out just yet.”
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