Opinion: No denying that Saracens raised the standard

Adam Kyriacou

Will history judge the last 10 years of Saracens with favour?

As Nigel Owens blew the final whistle on Saturday, so we saw the end of the 10-year reign of one of the greatest rugby teams the global game has ever seen.

The bare statistics make for some reading; five Premiership championships (with a top four placing in each of those 10 years), three European Champions Cups and runners-up once and finally, an LV= Cup in 2014/15.

In truth, ever since Nigel Wray acquired Saracens in 1996, money has been no object and success has always been the target. From the early signings of Michael Lynagh, Phillippe Sella and Tim Horan to the almost unending churn of big name coaches seen in the 2000s, Wray’s chequebook has matched his vision for the club and finally, in 2010, with the arrival of Brendon Venter and Mark McCall, he found kindred spirits able to deliver his vicarious desire for success.

Venter, appointed for the 2009/10 season, was the hard man Wray needed to shake up the gifted but hugely underperforming Saracens. Shortly after his arrival, he triggered the culling of 18 players within 48 hours, known among fans as “the night of the long knives” then followed by the arrival of a number of hard, journeymen South Africans to the squad.

It was the watershed moment, the single move that catapulted Saracens from the gloomy backwaters of Watford into the mainstream of suburban London at their new home at Allianz Park.

The coaching teams of McCall, Paul Gustard and latterly Alex Sanderson and Kevin Sorrell formed a hard-nosed combination of Saracens heritage that brought success upon success, based upon the tightest defence in the global game, the individualism of the Vunipola brothers, Owen Farrell and many others. 2015/16 and 2018/19 saw incredible years for the club as they became the only team to complete the double on two separate occasions.

England too were a beneficiary of both the Saracens success and their conveyor belt of players. At times, Eddie Jones has fielded sides with eight starting Saracens in it, a testimony of their desire to win, rugby excellence and skill levels.

Rugby had found itself in the remarkable position that, since professionalism 25 years ago, the game has been so regulated to the point that no side has been able to achieve the superclub status of Manchester United or Liverpool in soccer, but for the next 10 years success poured in, trophy cabinets bulged and Saracens became a metaphor for rugby excellence. Those achievements were mirrored off the pitch too, with a growing and loyal fanbase adding colour and vibrancy to every ground they travelled to. Nothing, it seemed, could stop the Men In Black, or so we thought.

However, for some time there had been mutterings about financial misdealing. Other clubs wondered just how Sarries funded such a wide and talented squad and connections with other clubs in South Africa were cited as attempts to bend the rules.

But Saracens saw this differently. They argued their backroom team, like their coaches and analysts, examined every legality and loophole and looked to exploit it for the benefit of their team, players and supporters, using long-term sustainable economic planning to better their offering and increase their income, thus enhancing their academy and bringing in selected talent from elsewhere. Like a world class back-row forward, they pushed and pushed the line of the law until eventually they got caught.

At the core of the issue is this grey area of wanting to combine what some would see as the anachronistic sportsmanship with modern commercial drivers. The Salary Cap was designed for a number of reasons – to reward academy progression and to create homegrown England players, to allow investors to invest with lower risk and to ensure a competitive 12 club league.

They were, in modern parlance, the arch disruptor. Disruptors need to experiment often, recognising that even small notions can turn into massively disruptive ideas. Similarly, disruptors need to study where the marginal gains are, where opportunity lies, and do things differently and that’s exactly what was happening at Allianz Stadium.

Saracens have spent 10 years as the main feature in the shop window of English rugby. Every other club has benefitted from the standard they set and the bar they raised. The national team benefitted greatly from the supply chain of players they provided and the winning mentality imbued within those people.

Many have pilloried Saracens, but when all the noise has died down, their actions may just be the thing that saves the future of rugby and lets teams enter into a truly professional and competitive world, one free of regulation and one where only the strong and innovative will survive.

As Owens brought down the final curtain on this decade of achievement from the Men In Black, the burning question we should ask is a simple one: looking back at the last 10 years, is English rugby better or worse off for the presence of Saracens?

The answer is an unequivocal yes.

by James While

Champions Cup