On-field glories will be tainted forever
How the mighty have fallen. From Saracens conquering the Champions Cup three times in four seasons, to the prospect of playing away to the part-timers of Hartpury College in the Championship. The thump of their landing will reverberate around English rugby for years to come.
There is no question now that Saracens’ wholesale abuse of the Premiership Rugby salary cap is the biggest scandal in British rugby history, maybe all sport. Their four Premiership and three European titles will be tainted forever by what amounts to systematic cheating.
This takes nothing away from the players and coaches who won those trophies, but as a club everything Saracens preached about honesty, discipline, work rate and humility now appears fundamentally hollow.
However unpleasant, relegation was the only satisfactory outcome. Trust with the other clubs was irrevocably broken, particularly once former chairman Nigel Wray went on the offensive once they were handed their initial punishment of a 35-point deduction and £5.36million fine. Had they accepted their medicine, perhaps they could have made amends.
Yet Saracens’ claim that they were still within the salary cap became laughable once club executives examined Lord Dyson’s report within Premiership Rugby’s office.
The idea that they could remain within the salary cap after signing a British and Irish Lions starter such as Elliot Daly was preposterous. So the clubs demanded Saracens throw open their books mid-season – and Saracens refused. As a club source commented to The Sunday Telegraph yesterday: “How much wrongdoing must you have done to accept anything other than to have that audit?”
At a time when Worcester flanker Michael Fatialofa remains in an intensive care unit in Paddington Hospital, after sustaining a severe neck injury against Saracens, it is important to retain a sense of perspective. Nonetheless Saracens’ punishment will have a very real human cost. Relegation invariably spells job losses within the wider club staff. Players, too, will suffer. For some that might mean kissing goodbye to playing for England or the Lions next season. Boo hoo, you might say. More pressingly, there will be a band of players whom Saracens will be determined to offload and, when most Premiership clubs are close to finalising their recruitment for next season, there is little time for them to land an equivalent contract.
Of course, other clubs were relegated during the time that Saracens cheated, which also led to job losses and players finding themselves on the scrapheap. Exeter players will also not get back the Premiership titles they could have won.
Still, the widespread schadenfreude seen on social media should be tempered with sadness. Saracens have been a force for so much good. They have developed Jamie George, Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and the Vunipola brothers into world-class players. The club’s community department undertakes incredible work with autistic people and young offenders. They even opened their own school in Colindale, one of the most deprived boroughs in London.
The unfortunate reality is all those wonderful achievements might be subsumed by this scandal.
No one remembers Lance Armstrong for his charity work.
Flagrant abuse of the salary cap system is the biggest scandal in British rugby history, if not in all of sport