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Saracens boss Mark McCall responds to Edward Griffiths' salary cap revelations

Owen Farrell talks to Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall at half-time in a recent match (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Saracens hope to minimise the distress caused by any possible player departures enforced by their breach of salary cap regulations by focusing on their older stars or those near the end of their contract.

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Interim chief executive Edward Griffiths revealed on Monday to RugbyPass that the club may have to reduce their head count or implement wage cuts to comply with the £7million limit for this season.

The English and European champions were docked 35 points and fined £5.36m for beaching the salary cap for each of the past three seasons and their task now is to ensure spending for the current campaign is within the ceiling.

Director of rugby Mark McCall will play a crucial role in any reductions made to the squad and his priority is to ensure they are handled sensitively. “If any changes are required then I’ll be fully involved in those decisions,” McCall said.

“This group have been through a hell of a lot together anyway and they need to see that any player is treated as well as you can treat them in these situations and no one feels like they are squeezed out or anything like that.

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“We’ve got to make sure we do anything that needs to be done really well, and I am sure we will. We are hoping it won’t be too cold. If anything has to happen it will be to players who will be coming towards the end of their careers or their contract ends in four months’ time.

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“Ideally that’s what would happen and we need to make sure those players leave the club amicably and on good terms, not on bad terms. I am really desperate for that to be the case because they have given the club a lot in the time they have been here.

“It is tricky, of course it is tricky, and it is not ideal but if something needs to be done, it needs to be done and we will do it as well as we can.”

Wales full-back Liam Williams will rejoin the Scarlets next season, trimming his salary from the 2020/21 total, but he has not played for Saracens this season due to the ankle injury sustained at the World Cup.

The older players who could be playing their final seasons at Allianz Park are 36-year-old scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth, 33-year-old centre Brad Barritt, 32-year-old flanker Michael Rhodes, 31-year-old full-back Alex Goode and 31-year-old Juan Figallo.

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Williams’ absence, combined with Alex Goode’s long-term chest injury, had created an opportunity at full-back for Max Malins but he has undergone a foot operation for the second time this season. The 23-year-old, who can also play fly-half, suffered the injury in the recent Premiership defeat at Exeter.

“It’s so disappointing for him to have such cruel luck after he’d had four months out already this season and had come back,” McCall said. “We all saw how exciting he looked. It’s one of those things. He’s a young player and will come back from it.”

– Press Association 

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J
JW 37 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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