Rugby Lansdown anger at possible England scenario for Sarries stars
BRISTOL Bears owner Steven Lansdown says it would be an insult to the rest of English rugby if head coach Eddie Jones selects Saracens players while they are in the Championship.
The Mirror is reporting England captain Owen Farrell and international superstars Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Elliot Daly and the Vunipola brothers, Billy and Mako, have agreed to stay loyal to their relegated club with the joint blessing of Jones and Warren Gatland.
Gatland enters into the picture because 2021 is a British and Irish Lions year with the former Wales head coach leading the tour to South Africa in the summer.
With the exception of Daly, the other five players are arguably the best performers in their positions in world rugby and as such are normally nailed on to start for England and the Lions when fit.
But if they do agree to stay at Saracens next season they will be playing in the Greene King IPA Championship following the reigning Gallagher Premiership champions’ relegation for breaching the salary cap for a fourth successive year.
The Mirror reports Saracens’ superstars have reportedly been offered the chance to enter into what chief executive Ed Griffiths called a “tripartite understanding” with club, country and the Lions.
He said: “We are trying to introduce an innovative idea in rugby which is a bit of joined-up thinking to ensure Saracens, England and the Lions effectively look at the proposal for each individual player and agree, so it works.
“There is no one size fits all rule to this. We have opened communications with Eddie and Warren and for those senior players, what we will do is work out their programme, sitting with each of them, for next year.”
Saracens are already reportedly lining up a number of mid-season friendly matches against Super Rugby sides to supplement their league commitments next season which would potentially provide the players with some ‘world-class’ opposition to sharpen their skills.
The players would then play in the four autumn internationals and five Six Nations games in 2021 for England.
Saracens have seven players in England’s 34-man squad preparing for the upcoming Six Nations at a
❝
training camp in Portugal. It would have been eight but No 8 Billy Vunipola broke his arm on Sunday in a stunning victory over Racing 92 to set-up an away quarter-final against Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Bristol Bears had no players selected in the England squad again.
Bristol’s owner Lansdown has been an outspoken critic of Saracens’ disregard for the rules and believes it would be wrong for Jones to continue to pick players from the club’s squad if they are not playing in the top flight next season. Speaking on Talksport on Monday, Lansdown said: “I feel all this talk of players in the Championship playing for England, I would feel insulted if that happens because our players should show they are worthy of playing for England and not just hiding away and turning up for the big games.
“There is a lot of talk to go on and it is a very difficult situation.”
Should Jones refuse to pick players at Saracens playing in the Championship, it would likely force many players out the door at Allianz Park, or provide a significant shake-up to the international squad providing chances for others waiting in the wings. There is no rule stopping Jones selecting players in the Championship and in 2014 Worcester Warriors’ full-back Chris Pennell was called up by then-England head coach Stuart Lancaster after his club side were relegated that season. Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney has already hinted England may relax its policy of not selecting players based overseas to allow Saracens stars to escape their relegation hell.
England have a longstanding stance of not picking players who ply their trade abroad other than in what they term “exceptional circumstances”.
Of course, it should not be forgotten some Saracens stars will almost certainly have to depart over the summer, if not before, to cut the club’s salary bill to allow them to be eligible for promotion back into the Gallagher Premiership assuming they win the Championship in 2020-21.