Sarries will be back... but they must take their medicine first
Juventus survived. that is the first thing to remember. so did Rangers. A great club, a great name, can ride a year or more in adversity.
Juventus were dropped to serie B in 2006 as a result of the Calciopoli scandal, financial mismanagement saw Rangers relegated to scotland’s fourth tier for the start of the 2012-13 season.
Both lived. Juventus have won the last eight league titles, the longest reign of dominance in Italian football by three years, and Rangers are once again challenging Celtic for supremacy under the stewardship of steven Gerrard.
there is no reason why saracens won’t travel the same path of redemption in rugby.
their relegation may seem harsh considering the many positive impacts saracens have had on the game in this country.
It is certainly a blow for england coach eddie Jones as he plots the next two years of strategy but if rugby’s financial rules are to have meaning, outside factors cannot be allowed to dominate.
If saracens cannot comply with the regulations this season — and, apparently they cannot — having already suffered a points deduction and a mighty fine, only one sanction remains. At least it then concludes the matter.
From here, after another points deduction that will relegate them, saracens must be trusted to run their business within the competition’s boundaries and manage their return to the elite, from wherever that journey begins.
to be scared to lose them, however, to be unprepared to challenge a club of that size, would create a two-tier system of those who are expendable and other clubs who are not. And Premiership Rugby would be left without credibility.
some will see this as an act of vengeance by bitter rivals, and, without doubt, scores are being settled. Yet, equally, there is a reason for that. We will never know what the league table would have looked like had saracens played it straight.
Clubs, players and coaches may have been deprived of career pinnacles, of achievements that would live with them for ever. If they are resentful towards the club who did not play fair, is it any wonder?
nigel Wray (right), the owner whose business arrangements with key players were judged to have crossed lines over legal payment within the salary cap, has stepped down as saracens chairman and is said to be ‘disillusioned’ at his treatment by boardroom rivals.
Brendan venter, the club’s former director of rugby, said: ‘nigel is in the sport because he loved the camaraderie and friendship. When this thing happened, there was a side of rugby he became disillusioned with — he did not know it worked like that. He liked all of the club owners personally. He saw them as his friends and then they turned on him.’
equally, maybe they saw him as a friend and then it turned out he had been cooking the books and stiffing them competitively as a consequence.
there is a reason, surely, that saracens would not accept a deal to return their three trophies and agree to a further forensic examions nation of their accounts. Indeed, even if saracens had agreed to hand back the honours, how fulfilling would that have been to the beneficiaries?
Inter Milan belatedly won Italy’s 2005-06 title only after Juventus had been punished with relegation and AC Milan deducted 30 points. One imagines they enjoyed their next four serie A successes considerably more.
so saracens will be back, almost certainly the season after next, but will no longer be the powerhouse force in Premiership Rugby. not immediately, anyway.
they will lose players, they will lose their status in europe — unable to defend the ChampiCup even if they won it this season, due to their existence outside the Premiership elite.
It will be the 2021-22 season before they are in the top division again and 2022-23 at the earliest before they are back in europe.
Yes, this is a hard knock but it isn’t Armageddon. saracens will endure, their outstanding academy will endure, even some of their better players might elect to stay, if they admire the wider club philosophy and the numbers add up.
Juventus lost key men such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lillian thuram and Fabio Cannavaro as a result of Calciopoli, but others remained.
Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Giorgio Chiellini, Pavel nedved, David trezeguet and Mauro Camoranesi all played for the club in serie B and when they went up a year later.
this will also be true of saracens. undoubtedly it is a headache for Jones and for British Lions coach Warren Gatland if players with the ability of Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Mako and Billy vunipola and Jamie George spend 2020-21 marmalising inferior opposition at clubs such as Hartpury and Ampthill.
Jones can perhaps draw on a r reserve of goodwill with saracens’ e england contingent — six started the World Cup final, with two on the bench — and look ahead to the n next big tournament in 2023.
But Gatland has to make calls on a Lions tour that will travel to s south Africa after saracens’ backwater w season ends.
It presents a very real dilemma f for the coach, and, plainly, his p players if it becomes clear that their selection is jeopardised.
these are all unfortunate consequences, and, it may be argued, placed together they represent a punishment that exceeds the crime.
Yet saracens, like Juventus and Rangers, will always have the advantages of scale — a loyal support base, potential revenue streams, a glamorous name.
there is talk of a Premiership closed shop, but even the most disaffected rival would be mad to bring that in while saracens are locked out. english rugby would be hugely reduced without them, financially and competitively.
Meaning, if well run, if fair, saracens will soon be back. this is a blip, not a bust. saracens will return and next time at least everyone will know where they stand.