ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Facing relegation for breaking the salary cap rules, Sarries players finally address the...
ENGLAND’S Saracens contingent have been carefully shielded since coming into camp for the Six Nations, but they finally put their heads above the parapet yesterday to face questions about the salary cap saga.
It had to happen at some point. The London club, who have been consigned to relegation at the end of this season, have more players in the England squad than any of their rivals, yet only Owen Farrell — as national captain — had made an appearance in front of the media.
There was hope within the England set-up that this would blow over, but there was no prospect of that while the men caught in the middle of it remained out of sight.
So, in the down week between Six Nations fixtures, there was a belated attempt to address the elephant in the room. Wearing their England tracksuits at the team’s temporary base in Kensington, Saracens players spoke at last about the uncomfortable backdrop to this Test campaign.
Normally, international issues impinge on the club scene, but in recent months it has been the other way round, amid the Premiership champions’ brutal demise.
First in was Jamie George, the hooker for Saracens, England and the Lions; well-known for being articulate and a straight talker. He lived up to that billing yesterday, despite his evident unease. He knew what was coming but met it head-on. There was no ducking and no diversions.
George spoke with what came across as an honest conviction about an unseemly episode which he has been embroiled in, despite no direct personal involvement in relation to the cap breaches.
He tried to sum up how he felt about it all. It was clearly a struggle.
‘I wouldn’t say I’m angry,’ he said. ‘You go through all these emotions. Something comes up, then you’re angry or upset but you find a way to take the positives out of it, then something else happens and you go through it again.’
There has been no criticism aimed at George, but he was asked how he and other Saracens players could have had no inkling that the club were circumventing the spending regulations. He played down the focus on finances and argued that he and others were naive — nothing more.
‘Genuinely, hand on heart, I’ve never even thought what anyone else would be on,’ he said. ‘Money isn’t a factor for me at all. It is great we earn money doing what we love, but I grew up going to Vicarage Road with my old man and playing for Saracens was everything. That is still what it is now.
‘I never wondered. We all came through at the same time, the club just seemed to be evolving and obviously things got out of hand in the background and the accounts didn’t add up.
‘That is probably stupid from me, but it is also not my responsibility. I genuinely didn’t think about it. I think it is right that the players don’t take the responsibility.’
On that basis, if the players protest their own innocence in the matter, they must feel let down by the hierarchy at Saracens who presided over systematic cheating?
‘ It’s difficult,’ said George. ‘They have shown a huge amount of loyalty to me and remorse in terms of what they have done and that is appreciated.
‘I don’t feel let down. The opportunities that Nigel Wray has given to me from the age of 17 — he has invested so much time into me and love, so I will be forever grateful for that.’ Maro Itoje followed George in. His smile betrayed tension. Having to submit to an interrogation was not a joyous prospect and it showed but Itoje is smart enough to appreciate there was no other way. He could not move on from this controversy until he had confronted it. As someone name-checked in the report into Saracens’ offences, having received investments from Wray, the club’s former chairman, Itoje was more guarded and defensive. His mantra was that he wished to look forward and not back, but every question forced him to reflect on the recent past. He remained polite, if evasive.
He conceded that the situation was ‘not ideal’ but made it clear he was not carrying it as baggage through this Six Nations.
Like George, Itoje refused to criticise leading Saracens figures, those with the overview of spending, for allowing the club to end up in this dire state.
‘I’m not here to point fingers,’ he said. ‘No one at the club wanted this to happen or envisaged it would happen. I’m sure if they did, they would have taken steps to make sure it didn’t. I don’t want to say, “It was this person’s fault or that person’s fault”. The club have said their piece. They have apologised.’
Itoje was asked if he still has business links with Wray and said: ‘Nothing has changed.’
He was adamant that when the investment arrangements were set up, he had been assured they were all ‘above board’.
Should he not have been more careful and asked more questions? ‘If you look back you can think, “Maybe I could have done this, done that”,’ he said. ‘But what has happened has happened.’
There is an obvious desire on the part of Itoje to move on and put the saga behind him. ‘This is a past-tense situation,’ he said. Well, it has certainly been tense. And the breaches may have been in the past, but they are impacting on the present and the near-future. But at least the elephant has been tackled. England’s Saracens have come out of hiding and said their piece. Now, at last, they can focus solely on the job in hand.