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'Ever since I have been at Saracens, we have been universally disliked... it's not really new to us'

Saracens gather during their Gallagher Premiership Rugby match at Gloucester last Saturday (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Alex Lozowski has hit back at Saracens critics, insisting they will not “lie down” and hand over their Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup titles even though they now have a bigger target on their backs following the salary cap row. 

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Saracens have been fined £5.3million and will be deducted 35 points in the Premiership campaign unless an appeal for breaching the salary cap over the last three seasons is successful.

The controversy, which erupted last week when Premiership Rugby announced its findings, had led to much criticism of the London club. 

However, Lozowski claimed the dislike of them is nothing new due to their remarkable record of collecting trophies over the last decade. He said: “Ever since I have been here, we have been universally disliked.

“So, it’s not really new to us and that is what happens to you when you have success and win championships. I guess what has happened has made that a bit worse, but we are used to being disliked.

(Continue reading below…)

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“Teams always give their best 80 minutes because they want to beat you so badly and that is what we deal with every week. We look forward to those games and the target on our backs may be a bit bigger now. I am sure we are all ready to deal with that.”

Lozowski, who heads to Paris on Sunday to start the club’s defence of their Heineken Champions Cup title against Racing 92, added: “We are not going to lie down and give it away to whoever comes next.

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We are a proud bunch of lads who are proud of what we achieved last season (winning the double) and we have an opportunity to start our defence against a great team in Paris and the first round is always massive. 

“There has been no talk at all about being able to afford to lose this one and sneak through. We are going over there to win.

“Nothing that has happened (to the club) affects training. We are professional rugby players and there has been no talk of points reductions or penalties at this stage. 

“We have an amazing challenge against a phenomenal team and the moment we start worrying about other things, then it could be a long afternoon on Sunday.”

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Lozowski did admit it has been difficult to avoid hearing the criticism from other clubs over the decision to fine Saracens and deduct Premiership points. 

“It’s hard not to see it on social media and a lot of people have had a lot to say about it – other teams, coaches and players. It is hard not to notice it but in terms of how it makes me feel – it doesn’t really bother me.”

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H
Hellhound 21 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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