Saracens pay the price for flying too close to the sun
THE Premiership and the European Cup, was all about Saracens during this era. For good and bad, it was a turbulent and ultimately controversial period. They relentlessly and often brilliantly marched to three Premiership titles and three European crowns but then like Icarus who dared to fly too close to the sun they plummeted to ground when their salary cap transgressions were unearthed and they were banished to the Championship.
The revelations, unveiled by a national newspaper not the umbrella organisation, concerned three consecutive seasons – 2016-17, 2017-18, 201819 – in which Saracens exceeded the salary cap. In two of those seasons they defeated Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership final and, not unreasonably, it was the Chiefs who led the chorus of angry complaints against Saracens when their misdemeanours came fully to light.
There were, however, some nuances. In all three seasons Premiership Rugby had seemingly been aware that Saracens had exceeded the salary cap but taken no action. This is important because the payments that put Saracens above the agreed salary cap were calculated by including the joint investment companies set up by Nigel Wray with certain key players. These investment companies were openly declared in the names of the players involved, the Premiership should have been fully aware of them. The players could, of course, have lost money as well as earned money.
Saracens believed they had discovered a loophole and took the Premiership’s disinclination to act over a three-year period as tacit approval of their initiative. That was Saracens’ mistake, they should have explicitly confirmed with Premiership Rugby whether they were acting within guidelines or not, and it was that recklessness that was to cost them dear. Why invite a “No” was their flawed attitude.
Retribution when it came was massive. Saracens were fined £5.4m and docked 35 points as per the regulations but there was no provision to redistribute the trophies won in those seasons Saracens transgressed and certianly no provision to automatically relegate the offenders.
It soon became quite apparent that despite being docked 35 points, Saracens would comfortably avoid the drop so, making up new retrospective laws on the hoof, Premiership Rugby then docked Saracens another 70 points to make doubly sure there was no prospect of them staying up. It was all very unseemly, not to say illegal in the eyes of some. It certainly wasn’t Premiership Rugby’s finest moment.
And of course it was a shocking and humiliating end to a period of unprecedented success for Saracens. The club had been at the very heart of the professional revolution, from the moment Nigel Wray started signing big name players like Michael Lynagh, Philippe Sella and Francois Pienaar and moved the club from their 300 capacity Bramley Road Ground.
And one of the great ironies is that in recent years their success had been largely based on home grown talent or snapping up high quality players at a bargain price under the noses of those who hesitated or who hadn’t recognised the talent of those involved.
They didn’t ‘buy in’ Alex Goode, Nick Tompkins, Duncan Taylor, Owen Farrell, Ben Spencer, Jamie George, George Kruis, Maro Itoje, Ben Earl, Nick Iziekwe, Jackson Wray, Max Malins and others. They are down to their excellent academy. When they signed the Vunipola brothers neither had been capped and, although both were promising, neither were the stars they are now, nor were they on mega bucks – in fact they got Billy rather cheap as Wasps offloaded quickly with a fire sale.
When they signed a 21-yearold Brad Barritt from Sharks in South Africa the combative centre was uncapped and unknown here. He didn’t require top dollar. Hooker Schalk Brits was a complete unknown here in 2009 – dumped by the Springboks after just one cap – and didn’t cost a fortune. No headlines when he arrived. He became an awesome player in every respect and the club take much credit in that.
Ernst Joubert was nowhere near a Springbok cap and arrived as an anonymous South African journeyman. For a couple of years though he was the best No.8 in the Premiership. The great Jacques Burger, along with Brits the best ever value-for-money signing in the Premiership, had been plying his trade without fanfare for Pro D2 stragglers Aurillac and had given up on making a major breakthrough with the Blue Bulls. Richard Wigglesworth had fallen out of favour with England, Will Skelton just couldn’t hack it with Australia, Charlie Hodgson had been retired by England.
All that was down to great player ID and management. Where it backfired horribly for Saracens was that as they improved collectively and started winning trophies the players expected their market value to increase and the salary cap didn’t have that flexibility. England duty also meant Saracens saw much less of their top players, for whom they were now paying top dollar, than other clubs. Saracens players made 68 England starts in 2019. Bristol in comparison totalled 0, Gloucester 4, Exeter 11.
The burden fell massively on Saracens while others operated under the radar, but within the same salary cap. Saracens tried to beat that system, got caught and paid a heavy cost.