Saracens stars free to play for England

Mccall backs players to appear in Six Nations Sale co-owner calls for greater transparency

Mark Mccall has given emphatic backing for his Saracens players to represent England during the Six Nations, despite fears from national head coach Eddie Jones that they could skip the championship to help their club avoid relegation from the Gallagher Premiership following the salary cap sanction.

Jones had suggested that England’s Saracens contingent could put their club before country following the 35-point deduction and £5.4 million fine.

The decision by Saracens not to appeal has seen the club go from third to bottom of the Premiership on minus 22 points, 26 behind second-bottom Leicester, and they are likely to have to win 14 out of their 18 remaining league matches to avoid relegation.

Mccall, who held a meeting with the club’s squad yesterday to thrash out their way forward this season, insisted any of his players would have his full support to play international rugby. Saracens provided six players in England’s starting XV that lost to South Africa in the World Cup final in Yokohama.

“I’m not sure why he [Jones] is saying that,” said Mccall, the club’s director of rugby. “It is not something I would ever ask one of our players to do. I genuinely want our players to play for England. It’s the absolute pinnacle of the game.

“Wanting to play in the Six Nations doesn’t mean you’re not committed to the club. All of these guys are 100 per cent committed.”

Several of Mccall’s England players are expected to return to their squad for their Champions Cup match against the Ospreys at Allianz Park on Saturday following their defeat by Racing 92 on Sunday. Mccall said the squad meeting had helped the players move on from the controversy and focus on their rugby challenges.

“We are drawing a line under what has happened, especially with the decision on Monday,” Mccall added. “We are going to concentrate on the rugby. It is a tough challenge. But the squad is very tight, very together, very united.”

Alex Lewington, the Saracens wing, said the players had been able to voice their concerns about the club’s predicament.

“Mark Mccall led the meeting well,” said Lewington. “When Mark knows something he’ll let us know. It’s been quite a dragged out thing over the last two weeks. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but you get a bit bored of it. You just want to concentrate on your rugby. From an individual perspective you just want to go out, play well and if we do that as a team we’ll get a result. And that closes the gap.”

Lewington, who has experienced relegation with his previous club London Irish in 2015, said the players would face a test of their character, and different pressure from that associated with winning titles.

“We have always had a great culture here, but sometimes it is easy to have a great culture when you win every week and are in finals,” Lewington said. “The pressure on a game of relegation is a different pressure to winning a final.”

Meanwhile, Sale Sharks co-owner Simon Orange has called for greater transparency in salary cap arrangements as he warned that it was too easy to escape detection and that the game would be in danger of going bust if spending was unchecked.

“They can only audit what’s there, can’t they?” said Orange. “I’m in agreement with transparency, players having to account for what they receive and maybe agents, too. I don’t know [if everyone is playing by the rules] but I do know I have got 34 players and I’m struggling [to be within the cap] and others have 48 quality players and they aren’t, so I suspect we’re not all the way there yet.”