Exeter: We won’t play Sarries
As coach admits World Cup stars will be rushed back and European glory sacrificed, rival fans taunt:
EXETER boss Tony Rowe says the Chiefs could refuse to play Saracens next month if their rivals win an appeal against salary cap sanctions.
Saracens won at Gloucester yesterday despite a raucous West Country reception, but Exeter CEO Rowe insists their contest at Sandy Park on December 29 is at risk. He said: ‘It’s something we’d consider. Their squad is similar to last year.
‘No doubt they are in breach of the salary cap and that’s not fair.
SARACENS’ director of rugby has revealed his side will play as if they are on a negative points balance and the World Cup stars will be rushed back as the club prepares for the ‘worst case scenario’.
Breaking his silence on Saracens’ 35-point deduction and £5.4 million fine for breaching the salary cap, Mark McCall said the club will now prioritise the Premiership over Europe as they seek to avoid relegation if the penalty stands.
Following their 21- 12 victory against Gloucester yesterday in the face of a fired-up Kingsholm, the table officially puts Saracens in second spot on 13 points, accompanied by an asterisk.
Yet McCall said the attitude among his group is that they are on minus 22 points, in case the club’s appeal is unsuccessful and the approach for this season has been altered accordingly.
‘We have to [think like that]. We have a plan for the worst- case scenario, which will affect our strategy around the Champions Cup,’ he said.
Asked whether the he England players s including Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Billy and Mako Vunipola would come back sooner than planned, he said: ‘Yes. We would have had some big conversations anyway y about how they are feeling ing because it is unrealistic tic to think some can come back from five months away and play in a Champions Cup game two weeks after a World Cup final.
‘Those conversations are going to be a bit different now. When we play like that in a game like today, a lot of these players deserve to experience European rugby and that could be a big benefit to the club in the long term.’ The Six
Nations and rules on rest periods mean the England p players could miss s six rounds of P Premiership ma matches, so Saracens appe appear to be planning to use th those players for as many Premiership games as possible and focus their younger players on the Champions Cup. Although McCall revealed that Saracens are not discussing ‘breaking up players’, he said: ‘If we were to be relegated we need to do some good thinking and some proper planning. There is a Lions tour at the end of next season and we will see. Our job at the moment if the points deduction remains and the appeal is not successful is to try to stay up and that is what we will try and do.’
Recalling the meeting on Tuesday when the Saracens players were told of the judgment, he said: ‘We talked about how everybody felt about it. There are a lot of questions we need to answer internally, just about different scenarios. When we talk about displays of unity, we had all of the World Cup players in twice when they are off this week.
‘They were around the club this week. It is not an external show of unity but it is an internal sign of unity. They want to play. They wanted to play tonight but we were never going to do that.’ Saracens appeared to use the hostility at Kingsholm to their advantage, with the young squad put forward by the reigning Premiership champions rising to the occasion.
Despite the best efforts of the Gloucester faithful, including fans waving fake £50 notes, repeated chanting of ‘ Same old Sarries, always cheating’ and a re- taken conversion kick from Saracens being jeered at, the visitors were dominant throughout.
Tries came from Nick Tompkins and Ben Earl, while Manu Vunipola added three penalties and a conversion to give Saracens a third win of the season.
Tom Marshall had buoyed the home crowd when touching down and Lewis Ludlow added another try in the second half. But the game was always with Saracens and Gloucester coach Johan Ackermann noted the atmosphere had provided ‘easy motivation’ for their guests.
The onl y ot her bl ot on t he l andscape for Saracens was a nasty-looking leg injury to loose head Ralph Adams- Hale, who needed oxygen as he was taken off on a stretcher.
McCall, however, believes the win had taken ‘grit and toughness to a new level’. ‘The three performances before this one were full of grit and toughness and we took grit and toughness to a whole new level today and it was a performance we can be proud of,’ he said. ‘We’ve got
9 If Saracens had suffered their 35pt penalty last season, they would have finished in ninth place
a 36-year-old scrum-half [Richard Wigglesworth] in the dressing room saying it was one of his best wins, one of his most memorable wins. That’s because of just how switched on and engaged the group were. It was a performance to be proud of.’
Saracens’ assistant coach Alex Sanderson felt the ‘hate’ levelled at t he cl ub t hi s week has been ‘ misplaced and misguided’. ‘ To quote the immortal words of Taylor Swift “Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, players gotta play”,’ he said.
‘Not to belittle the scenario, that’s just our mentality. It’s early days and emotions are very high and it will be tough to remain consistent over the season but hopefully the appeal exonerates us in some way.’