THE LAST WORD

WITH so much doom and gloom in English rugby, it was heartening to visit Saracens’ enhanced StoneX Stadium last week on the day they unveiled a shiny new stand. It has been transformed from a dingy, out-dated concrete relic into a towering new addition. The high-spec facilities in the new stand include bar and lounge areas alongside the tunnel, as well as huge, state-of-the-art changing rooms, physio and recovery rooms and separate management meeting rooms. It is a truly high-performance environment, which is not a given across the Premiership as a whole. Frankly, when Bath visit Barnet, their players and staff won’t want to leave and go back to the cramped confines of the Rec.