Fire and loathing
No love lost as Exeter face Sarries today in red-hot battle full of...
AS desperate as Saracens and Exeter are to move on from the salary cap saga that engulfed the former and enraged the latter, there will not be many fans inside Sandy Park today keen to let it lie.
While both sides will say Premiership points are their priority as we enter the middle third of the season, this one matters more.
It is a fixture with a history of ire, provocation from board level to pitch level and a rivalry that has cracked the England dressing room. Exeter never had a monopoly on their anger towards Saracens and their book-bending — as their director of rugby Rob Baxter pointed out with a chuckle this week.
‘We get brought up as the team but there were 10 other Premiership clubs who were annoyed as well,’ he said. ‘We were all feeling similarly about it.’
But they were the side most visibly wronged by Saracens’ cheating, having lost three finals to Mark McCall’s side, who, now back in the top flight, are on a level playing field with the rest for the first season in many. Due to Sarries’ relegation, after their number-fiddling was exposed, Exeter have played them twice in just under two years. Neither counted for meaningful points for Saracens, already in December 2019 and September 2020 destined for the drop with countless minus points enforced on them. But that match on December 29, 2019 did spark.
That November, after the World Cup, Saracens had been served with their initial punishment — the £5.36million fine, the 35-point deduction — and while most clubs had their say Exeter went furthest. When asked about it, Baxter was the first coach to outwardly label Sarries’ infringements as ‘cheating’ — a message he stuck to.
Chairman Tony Rowe was the most outspoken suit, asking for Saracens to be stripped of their titles, not so that they could be handed to Exeter but so their creative accounting was not rewarded.
So Sandy Park was charged for Saracens’ arrival that December. Exeter won 14-7, but the game exploded near the end with an all-in brawl which saw Chiefs scrum-half Nic White flipped over and prop Harry Williams sent off, while referee Wayne Barnes threatened Sarries No 8 Billy Vunipola with a card for backchat.
Later it emerged the England forward had been lauding his ill-gotten gains over Exeter — reportedly he said to White: ‘Unlucky, you haven’t got a Premiership winner’s medal.’
White never did win one before leaving during 2020’s lockdown.
His deep dislike for the way Saracens denied Exeter, how they not only failed to appreciate their cheating but also now were actively lauding it over their rivals, was shared among many Chiefs.
So while time has passed, bitterness may linger. England coach Eddie Jones, in his new book, cites how the salary cap saga split his dressing room, with resentment building against the Sarries-heavy leadership group. ‘It’s like anything in life, you can keep looking back on it and keep going, “That wasn’t fair”. It doesn’t do a lot of good now,’ said Baxter this week.
‘Now, we’re all getting on with it. Saracens have done their time and we’re all moving on under new salary cap regulations. If you want to win the Premiership this year Saracens are going to be part of it, and you’ve got to be a better team than them.
‘If some players still feel that’s an issue, that’s great and they should use that as motivation.’
Saracens are expecting a febrile full house today at Sandy Park but while Exeter recently have been their fiercest rivals for titles, they are seen as just another club with a gripe against them.
‘It’ll be hostile but we’re looking forward to it,’ back-row Jackson Wray told Sportsmail. ‘There are a few bits coming our way, fans who haven’t been too nice, but all we can do is do what we need to on the pitch. Maybe for them it matters, but for us it’s done.’
Sarries boss McCall is never one for outward displays of emotion but knows raw feeling will play a part today. ‘There are always buttons to push no matter who you’re playing,’ he said.
‘We’ll try to arrive at 3pm at Sandy Park in a good emotional state. We’re facing Exeter at their best and at their most motivated. We’ll be motivated, too.’
Both sides are playing this grudge match down publicly, then. For Exeter that might be wise — you will not like Saracens when they are angry.
Asked if they are galvanised by ill-feeling towards them, Wray said: ‘It does bring us closer. But this isn’t personal for us, we just want to win.’