Sorrell: All the coaches will stay at Sarries
SARACENS backs coach Kevin Sorrell is convinced a spell in the Championship will extend the careers of Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George and the rest of Sarries England stars
Despite impending relegation, long-serving Sorrell, who joined Saracens as a player in 1995, has pledged his future to the club and is delighted their big names are doing likewise.
He believes the club will emerge stronger, telling The
Rugby Paper: “As far as I know these boys are all staying as a core of our group.
“They’ve been ingrained in the way we do things over many years and that allows you to build a squad around them because of the values they represent.
“It’s always better when you’ve got academy boys coming through and we’ve got a high percentage of those in our squad now. It’s brilliant that these boys want to stay.”
With a Lions tour to South Africa next year and the likelihood that Farrell, Itoje, George and the Vunipola brothers will be involved, Sorrell added: “What Phil Morrow, our head of performance, has done brilliantly is how he manages players and their workloads.
“He did it with Ireland before in terms of training and playing time and he extended people’s careers over there, so that’s what he’s been trying to do with us in the rotation that we do and how we look after players.
“It is a proper treadmill with international rugby where you’re going from one game to the next with very little time to physically and mentally recharge. Being in the Championship will provide an opportunity for these boys to refresh while still helping the club.”
Sorrell insists all of Saracens’ coaching staff are staying put, along with a core of younger players.
Despite the fall-out from the salary cap scandal, he explained: “Obviously it was a proper thunderbolt when it first got announced. Then you have to process it, try and digest it all and obviously there the raw emotion you feel at the time.
“But there are positives in every situation and I look at what we’ve had to face since November and the opportunities that young guys like Manu Vunipola, Sean Reffell, Andy Christie and Joel Kpoku have had, and they’ve all been exposed to good games.
“They’ve played in Europe and had a lot of time in the Premiership, so for me a big positive is how our younger players have handled certain situations and that’s going to serve them well.”
As for himself and other senior coaches like Mark McCall and Alex Sanderson, asked whether he considered leaving, Sorrell added: “No, that was never in question. The thing I enjoy most is that I work with my best mates and that’s not changed.
“Obviously we’re going to be doing our coaching next season in the Championship, but as a group of mates we came in on that first morning after it was announced and said, ‘right, what does everyone want to do? Are we all in for this?
“To a man everyone said ‘yes’, so that hasn’t changed one bit and for me this is just another challenge that we face. I don’t envisage any break up of our coaching staff. We’re all still here and it’s a special part of the job, so staying at Saracens was a no-brainer for me.”