EURO NO-SHOW SPARKS FURY AT SARRIES
Salary cap champs branded ‘cheats’
FORMER England captain Chris Robshaw has branded Saracens’ salary cap breaches “cheating” and warned their actions put rugby in dangerous waters.
The Harlequins back-rower, who was in the side beaten by Sarries before details of their financial scandal emerged on Tuesday, believes the Premiership and European champions have damaged the sport’s reputation, just when it was in the public eye after England’s run to the World Cup final.
Saracens twice lifted the Premiership trophy and European Cup while running roughshod over the league’s agreed wage structure. And Robshaw says their 35-point deduction and £5.3million fine is deserved for bringing the game into disrepute.
“You can call it what you like, but it’s cheating to a certain extent, and not a good situation for our sport to be in,” said the Quins flanker (above).
“It’s not great, the game we love is in the world eye, the pinnacle of English rugby is illegal, and it puts our sport in a very dangerous place.
“It’s one of those things that has been spoken about for a long time among players and the wider public.
“When you look at their squad, it’s a pretty big squad of international players, and you have to be a genius to work some of these figures out.
“We’re a sport that claims to be whiter than white, and we always look down on football and say how it is, but we are like everyone else.
“You look at the high of the
World Cup. It didn’t finish how we would have liked but the high that brought the country, that excitement, and now we have some damage control to do.”
It was Exeter Chiefs who went home from Twickenham empty handed in the past two seasons as Saracens celebrated being champions.
Many have suggested Sarries should be stripped of their titles after being found guilty of breaching the salary cap. But
Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter (below) is not holding out much hope.
“If you’re asking me would I like to walk into Sandy Park and see three Premiership trophies there, I would love to,” he said. “In reality, do I see that happening? No. There are too many other factors that come into play. I believe the way we played in the final last year would have beaten any other Premiership team. “The bad feeling I’ve got is how hard our players have worked to have achieved what they have. We worked hard to get to the last four finals, they shouldn’t be paying outside the salary cap and to dress it up as player welfare and developing the game sticks in the craw.”
And Exeter CEO Tony Rowe launched an attack on Sarries calling for them to be relegated from the top flight.
But Saracens called the sanctions “heavy handed”, insisting they will appeal.
“We’re supposed to be working within the salary cap to create a level of fairness and competition,” added Baxter.
“If the first response is to say the payments, investments and inducements are outside the cap, but are OK because the wording of the cap doesn’t catch them, the concern is they will move on by finding another way of doing it outside the wording of the salary cap.
“We’re not supposed to be finding loopholes and ways out of it, we’re supposed to find ways of working within it for the benefit of the competition.”