Clear the air talks with Saracens’ England players

Adam Kyriacou

England wing Jonny May has revealed that the squad has addressed the “elephant in the room” with Saracens players during their pre-Six Nations camp.

All 34 players gathered in the dining room at England’s Algarve training base to clear the air in the wake of revelations that Saracens have exceeded the limit for player wages in five of the past seven seasons.

The Premiership and European champions are to be relegated at the end of the season for breaching the £7million limit for 2019/20, raising the prospect of influential stars such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Mako Vunipola being the subject of ill will from their international team-mates.

But at a 30-minute meeting attended only by players – Jones and his coaching team were excluded – the seven-strong Saracens contingent were reassured there were no grudges.

“The tone was that there is obviously an elephant in the room so let’s just have a quick chat about it or however long we need to talk about it,” May said.

“From what I have seen all the players are fine. Nobody needs to be worried. They are going to get a plan in place.

“I’m sure the Saracens players will turn it into a positive no matter what happens. Those are the sorts of guys we are talking about.

“We reinforced to them that they have got our support, nobody thinks badly of them and nobody judges them.

“It is just a case that they want to be open with us and we want to be open with them. It’s worth talking about, but it really is not an issue from my perspective.

“We are here so it is worth addressing because it is quite disruptive what’s gone on. It’s been huge.

“It’s worth just knowing the Saracens guys are going through a tough time. No one here is judging them and no one thinks much about it other than they are great players and we are pleased to have them here.

“I guess if you were involved in it you would be thinking, ‘God what do these guys think of me?’. That’s never the case. It’s always worse in your head than it actually is in reality.

“It’s probably more for them, just going, ‘you know what guys, this is not a big deal for us. You are great players and we’re really pleased to have you here, anything you need from us, we are your team-mates and we will support you.”

It hasn’t been plain sailing for May too after the Rugby World Cup as he revealed he returned home from Japan to be greeted by a court summons.

The Leicester wing admits he endured a difficult period of readjustment after two months at the tournament which ended in a 32-12 defeat by South Africa in the climax to an otherwise superb campaign.

“You go home and you’ve got to cook your breakfast and do your washing. You have God knows how many letters from the council tax office and a summons to court,” May said.

“I am not going to court any time soon. That was one of the priority ones. You have to call them up. It’s difficult. It’s like, ‘Oh cheers, welcome back’.

“Things accumulate and life goes on and it does take a bit of time to get things back in order.

“You tick one job off your list and it creates two more. You will never get to the bottom of your to-do list.”

When asked if he thought Leicester County Council should have relaxed its deadline for payment because he was playing for England at a World Cup, May said: “No! I am just a number, whatever my reference number was. One of lots of numbers!”

 

England