Kruis diverts fire from salary-cap furore to focus on Exeter challenge
Saracens lock insists team are concerned about rivals on the pitch and not their words off it,
One of the pinnacle fixtures of the regular season hardly needs any extra fuel poured on the fire, but the impact of Saracens’ salary-cap breaches has turned their trip to Exeter Chiefs into a raging inferno. Exeter supporters, understandably, feel robbed of a fair shot at the Gallagher Premiership titles in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, when they lost to Saracens in both finals.
Sandy Park is hardly a monastery on a regular match day, but it should be especially loud after the club’s owner, Tony Rowe, called in October for Saracens to be relegated for cheating.
George Kruis and the rest of the Saracens side know what they are walking into today, although the England lock has not been paying attention to any comments from the Exeter camp.
“Apologies to you guys
[ journalists], but I don’t really read too much in the newspapers, it is none of my business.” Look past the salary cap-driven animosity and it seems fitting that Exeter and Saracens will play the final Premiership match of the decade.
Ten years after their promotion, the Chiefs are a domestic juggernaut. Harlequins, Leicester and Northampton may have also won titles in the 2010s, but this is Exeter and Saracens’ league now. “We play very differently, but I think the main similarities are both teams have built a squad and have put effort into the culture,” Kruis explains. “We have had quite a few battles. Definitely the finals, but I also remember a fair few times going down there and losing, so those ones for me stick out as much as the wins. “They keep the ball in multiple phases, they are a good set-piece team, you can see they are well coached, but they work hard for each other. That is what makes good teams.
“You have got to respect them because they are a good team and they chuck everything at you. There is a decent amount of respect. You know you are going there for a tough game, but we will relish that.” Saracens certainly head to Devon in fine form, having won their past five Premiership matches. The gap between them and the struggling sides above, Wasps and Leicester, continues to close. Mark McCall’s shuffling of his England internationals, working in accordance with the elite player squad rest requirements following the World Cup, has tested even Saracens’ considerably talented squad. Although it has given the next wave of talent – Ben Earl, Nick Isiekwe, Max Malins and Rotimi Segun among others – the opportunity to shine. Earl leads the league in turnovers, while no one else has won more line-outs than Isiekwe.
“I wouldn’t say it is a question of them coming of age. They are doing the right things. They are putting their hand up big time,” Kruis adds. “For us it is such a big thing, especially with the league position, and we have got a fair few internationals. The fact they are doing it when the internationals are around as well, and when they are not is huge for the club.
“It is exciting times to see a new crop in what could be a new cycle for the World Cup.
“They work hard, so they get everything they deserve. They are a good example of our academy system producing again and I don’t think anyone can argue that they are not fitting in well.
“The biggest thing is they have grafted – it didn’t come straightaway for some of them. They have grafted away through the process.”
Earl and Isiekwe should at least come into consideration for England’s next squad ahead of the Six Nations. Isiekwe has not been capped since the 2018 tour to South Africa but is still only 21, and Kruis has been impressed with his form.
“Nick is playing unbelievable. He has got a lot of attributes that if you would want, you could build a rugby player from scratch, athletically and such, he is unbelievable in that sense.
“He has got a massive opportunity in terms of his short-term and his long-term career in terms of being an international. It is something that is very much in his hands.”
Given the host of England contenders playing at Sandy Park, head coach Eddie Jones and the rest of the country will be watching with interest.
“We have targeted these three Christmas games, Bristol just gone and the next two, as a really good opportunity to put a stamp down in the Premiership,” Kruis admits.
Victory at Sandy Park would certainly rattle a few cages.