Skelton: Forget Oz, I’m with Sarries now
WILL Skelton has revealed why the ‘relentless positivity’ of Saracens and his lifestyle love-in with Europe persuaded him to forsake a World Cup chance with Australia.
While feverish media speculation abounded in Australia last week about a potential late call-up to Michael Cheika’s squad, back in London the reality surrounding the giant lock had been somewhat different as he concisely outlined the reasons it would not happen.
Skelton, who signed a two-year contract extension with Saracens in May, told
The Rugby Paper: “A few weeks ago we were in talks about going back and potentially being in the squad, but those talks dropped off and after extending my contract I’m fully focussed here.
“I haven’t felt under pressure and I made the decision quite early that I wanted to stay.
“My wife and I are really enjoying our time here and I’m getting to play with some of the best players in the world, in a successful team with world-class coaches who are relentlessly positive and push you to keep improving and learning, so it’s been a brilliant experience.
“Lifestyle-wise, we train hard but we also have a lot of time off and we’ve been able to explore quite a bit of Europe. We’ve been to France, Italy and Germany and a fair few other countries and we have trips away with Saracens which help you get to know the boys better.
“This is the right place for us, which is why I added another two years. Unless Australia had changed their eligibility rules, the World Cup just wasn’t going to happen.”
Skelton’s heavyweight impact at Saracens cannot be underestimated and after helping the club clinch a European and domestic ‘double’ last season, he now holds the distinction of being one of just three men to have won Super Rugby, Premiership and Champions Cup titles.
Rod Kafer (Brumbies and Leicester) and current teammate Sean Maitland (Crusaders and Saracens) are the others and the 27year-old enforcer has no intention of stopping there.
“Last season was very special,” Skelton said. “You work all year to play in big finals and to win the Champions Cup was an awesome feeling. But unlike Super Rugby, you then have to try and win a second competition in the Premiership and it all came to fruition.
“For me, it’s not so much about the end result but the journey that you’ve been on. The year we won Super Rugby at the Waratahs, I don’t particularly remember the final much, it was just a blur, but you remember the hill sessions in pre-season and the slog over the year.
“You remember the away games when you scrape a win and it was exactly the same with Saracens last season. The finals are actually a bit of a relief, but it’s a pretty unique achievement for me to have won all three and we just want to kick-on now, evolve and get better.”
With George Kruis and Maro Itoje heavily involved with England and Dom Day having departed to America, Skelton will be left to shoulder the second row burden with youngsters Nick Isiekwe and Joel Kpoku for large tracts of the forthcoming Premiership campaign.
He added: “It’s a massive opportunity for us to try to achieve something special while others are away.
“We’ve got a load of guys at the World Cup, not just with England either, but we’re the group that stays together for the whole season. In the past, when we’ve done well when the boys have been away, we’ve usually had pretty successful seasons by the end of it.”