Double standards? Champions Cup bigwig turns blind eye to Saracens ‘disrespect’ despite Bulls controversy

European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) chief executive Jacques Raynaud is not concerned over Saracens’ decision to rest several of their England stars for their Investec Champions Cup round-of-16 clash against Toulon.

Toulon will host Saracens at Stade Felix Mayol on Saturday and the North London outfit will be without Red Rose skipper Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Ben Earl, Tom Willis and Elliot Daly as the visitors prioritise their Premiership campaign.

Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson has criticised Saracens’ decision to field a weakened side this weekend, saying: “I can’t see us ever at Harlequins putting a second team out in a Champions Cup game.

“That’s disrespecting what I think the competition is. It’s an exciting competition that we want to be part of and we want to do ourselves justice.”

Despite Sarries‘ decision, Raynaud believes the Champions Cup is still the game’s most prestigious tournament for players and coaches.

‘It is more the exception, we shouldn’t overplay it’

“We do have one or two cases per season [of weakened teams], but it is more the exception, we shouldn’t overplay it,” Raynaud told BBC Sport.

“We are definitely living up to our promise to have the best players in the best matches.”

Last season, Bulls director of rugby Jake White received plenty of criticism when he fielded a second-string team to face Northampton Saints in their Champions Cup quarter-final at Franklin’s Gardens.

The Bulls eventually suffered a heavy loss and there was talk of them being investigated. Although EPCR were not impressed after the Pretoria-based outfit sent an understrength squad, no investigation was held.

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And earlier this season, the Stormers suffered a heavy defeat in a Champions Cup pool match against Harlequins.

But Raynaud believes those two incidents are in the minority and gave examples of where the opposite took place.

“Toulouse travelled down [to South Africa in January] with their best team to play the Sharks. And this was kind of a France versus South Africa remake,” explained Raynaud.

“You saw Northampton going down to South Africa and winning [against Bulls in December] and taking their best team.”

England rugby player welfare guidelines indicate that players who were in action throughout the Six Nations should not be involved on one of the three weekends following the famous championship.

And after opting to select his England stars for their recent Premiership matches against Harlequins and Leicester Tigers, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall says it would now be “unwise not to rest them” against Toulon.

Itoje’s marathon playing stint

Ahead of that clash against Toulon on Saturday, Itoje has played in 14 successive 80-minute matches for Saracens and England.

“There are some specificities due to injuries, due to player welfare, due to rest periods, which we fully respect,” added Raynaud.

“But overall, when you listen to coaches, when you listen to teams, they do use these [Champions Cup] weekends to shine at the very best level.

“We are increasingly seeing the teams wanting to go deep in Europe; this is the absolute measuring stick for them, this is what the players want, this is where the coaches want to shine and this is where the club branding is exposed to a global level.

“They are all chasing the star, they all want to add a star – or to have a star – and this is the beauty of the tournament.”

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