Saracens extend Mccall contract to ward off international interest

Fresh from leading Saracens to a fourth Aviva Premiership title under his tenure, director of rugby Mark Mccall yesterday signed a three-year contract extension to ward off the advances of international teams.

The Ulsterman would be a leading candidate to take over from Joe Schmidt or Eddie Jones should either leave their respective posts as Ireland and England head coaches after the 2019 World Cup.

Just as significantly from an England perspective, Alex Sanderson, who has been linked with taking over as defence coach from the outgoing Paul Gustard, has joined Mccall and the rest of the coaching staff in committing his future to the club. Performance director Phil Morrow, backs coach Kevin Sorrell, skills coach Joe Shaw, scrum coach Ian Peel and kicking coach Dan Vickers have all signed until 2022.

Since taking over from Brendan Venter during the 2010-11 season, Mccall has led Saracens to four domestic titles and back-to-back European Cups in 2016 and 2017. Only Dean Richards, as Leicester coach, can match that haul in the professional era in English rugby.

“It’s great news that they have all re-signed,” Nigel Wray, the Saracens chairman said. “They’re a team within a team; a group of friends together – they’re my friends.”

Jones has stated that the list of candidates he was interviewing to replace Gustard, who will take over as Harlequins’ director of rugby after the three-test tour to South Africa next month, were all English.

Sanderson was by far the best qualified candidate from the Premiership, after another season in which Saracens conceded the fewest points, and he has worked with Jones before at Saracens and Queensland Reds.

While the Rugby Football Union could easily buy Sanderson out of his new contract, his commitment to Saracens is likely to cool their interest. That could bolster the chances of Shaun Edwards, the Wales defence coach, and Shaun Wane, the Wigan head coach.

Having lost their past two defence coaches, Gustard and Andy Farrell, to England, Saracens will feel under no obligation to provide a third in Sanderson. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph last week, Wray said it is hard to keep coaches when international teams come calling.

“In an ideal world, you’d only ever want them to play and coach for Saracens,” Wray said. “But if you’ve got players such as Owen [Farrell] or Maro [Itoje] just happy to be at Saracens, then you’ve got the wrong blokes. You want them to be shooting for the stars.”