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Nigel Wray's promise to Saracens fans following salary cap sanctions

By Online Editors

05 Nov 2019

Saracens owner Nigel Wray celebrates with the trophy following their 2019 Gallagher Premiership final win over Exeter (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Saracens owner and chairman Nigel Wray has robustly vowed to defend the club after they were docked 35 points and fined more than £5million over breaches of salary cap rules.

Expressing his shock at the findings, Wray said in a statement issued shortly after the findings: “For over 25 years, I have put my heart and soul into the game I love.

“Together we have created something incredibly special with the Saracens family, both on and off the field. This is absolutely devastating for everyone associated with this amazing group of players, staff, partners and fans.

“It has been acknowledged by the panel that we never deliberately sought to mislead anyone or breach the cap and that’s why it feels like the rug is being completely pulled out from under our feet. We will appeal all the findings.”

The penalty – issued on Tuesday by Premiership Rugby Limited following a lengthy investigation – would leave the London club on -26 points in the Gallagher Premiership table if unsuccessfully appealed and facing relegation at the end of the season.

(Continue reading below…)

A statement from Premiership Rugby announced: “The sanction that has been imposed on Saracens Rugby Club by the panel is a total fine of £5,360,272.31 and a total deduction of 35 league points.

“Today’s decision by the independent panel upholds both the principle of the salary cap and the charges brought following an extensive investigation by Premiership Rugby.

RugbyPass: Saracens facing potential 35 point reduction and a real threat of relegation.https://t.co/6xwfJ6My5H

via @GoogleNews #rugbyunited

— Dan Etchells (@DanEtchells) November 4, 2019

“We are pleased that this process has reached a conclusion and we look forward to another exciting season of Premiership Rugby.”

The alleged breaches spanned the last three seasons but the points deduction will be applied in full this season.

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Comments on RugbyPass

johnz 17 minutes ago

All Blacks talk late-game adjustments after clutch England win

I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.

Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.

11 Go to comments

ColinK 18 minutes ago

Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?

Whatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.

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johnz 25 minutes ago

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Ratima did look rattled, compared to Roigard who looked like a boss when he came on. But that's been Roigard in test rugby so far. Ratima is only really starting because of Roigard's injury, otherwise surely Roigard was the incumbent. So it's not just one outing of the pine, that just points to Roigard being ready to have a start. As good as Ratima has been, Roigard just offers more.

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GL 1 hour ago

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Cody Taylor is a more significant loss than BB, not even close!

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JD 1 hour ago

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CO 1 hour ago

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I agree largely and I rate McKenzie as a wonderful utility at his best but now at twenty nine I wouldn't take him to the next world cup. I've never seen him as a a ten or a starter either at top tier test level. The bench needs a serious rethink with ideally a hybrid halfback/wing or a hybrid halfback/ten or a hybrid ten/centre to release that need for two relatively small guys on the bench.

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CO 1 hour ago

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JWH 1 hour ago

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Good idea, but to move a lock to 6 now with no previous experience save Scott Barrett (who is still our best lock) ahead of the 2nd best equal team in the world may cause more harm than good in terms of confidence, in both caoches and players.

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JWH 1 hour ago

Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I never said boring was bad, but it doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the ABs style. The ABs 10 looks like this: a little magic, good offloads, tactical precision kicking, draw and pass, and a cool head to level it off.

A game manager isn't exactly necessary, as the ABs should all know what they are doing, and the 9 should be directing the forwards. However, considering the youth of our best 9s currently, a more vocal, directive, and logical player like Harry Plummer would make more sense than someone like DMac, who is in his own right a good 10, but tends to sit in wider channels where he can threaten the line more directly, so has less influence on the postioning of the narrower forwards.

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Kia koe 2 hours ago

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Icefarrow 2 hours ago

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B-but all the armchair critics tell me he's useless and does little for the team but get penalised... This simply cannot be!

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Thomas K 2 hours ago

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So you think you’d definitely have scored way more tries if it wasn’t for all the off the ball shots? 🤣🤣