GOODE TO BE BACK

For full-back Alex and Saracens today’s final marks end of a tough road to top again for ex-Euro kings

WHATEVER heights Saracens hit today, Alex Goode cannot forget the lowest low. The former England fullback is back at Twickenham where his club play Leicester in the Gallagher Premiership final.

Goode is a five-time winner and bookmakers have the Londoners odds-on to make it six.

That would be some feat given they were playing in English rugby’s second division a year ago.

Almost a pinch-yourself moment for Goode who still bears the scars of that January day in 2020 when the players were told the club had cheated the salary cap and were being relegated.

“As a group it was very destructive and tough, a dagger to us as players and coaches and everyone at the training ground,” said Goode, 34.

“It was horrendous to see so much mud slung at good people who probably didn’t deserve it.

People had an opinion on anything and everything at that point.”

Other clubs danced on their grave, happy the threetime European champions had finally got their comeuppance for breaching salary cap regulations across three seasons.

“It was extremely tough, knowing we were going to be out of the biggest competitions in the world,” Goode continued.

“I’d just been named

European Player of the Year. I wanted to kick on.

“For me personally it was devastating.

“But we took our punishment and, as players, agreed it was our time to give back to the club and to rally and work unbelievably hard.”

Pledging to bounce back and win the league was an easy soundbite, like vowing to return better than before from serious injury. It is what sporting professionals say. This lot meant it.

“It’s not rocket science,” said Goode. “Having good people working unbelievably hard and driving towards a collective goal can be very powerful – but doing it day in day out, that’s the hard bit. We feel we’ve paid our dues.”

What makes this final so fascinating, and difficult to predict, is that Leicester are similarly motivated as they too are on a journey back from the bottom.

Two years running English rugby’s most decorated club dodged the relegation bullet, the second time only due to Saracens’ expulsion.

Goode remembers the Tigers as the side they were when Sarries beat them in the 2011 final, an occasion which provided him with his greatest rugby memory.

“We led by four points when they won a penalty with a minute to go,” he recalled.

“The defensive set for eight extra-time minutes on our own line was phenomenal.

“That moment when the final whistle blew, I just wish I could have bottled it up.”