Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

(Continue reading below…)

RugbyPass have made something truly special with the Barbarians rugby team

Video Spacer

“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.

ADVERTISEMENT

“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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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 

WATCH: Ellis Genge tells The Rugby Pod how he deals with the pressures of social media in rugby

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

KOKO Show | July 22nd | Full Throttle with Brisbane Test Review and Melbourne Preview

New Zealand v South Africa | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

USA vs England | Men's International | Full Match Replay

France v Argentina | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

Lions Share | Episode 4

Zimbabwe vs Namibia | Rugby Africa Cup Final | Full Match Replay

USA vs Fiji | Women's International | Full Match Replay

Tattoos & Rugby: Why are tattoos so popular with sportspeople? | Amber Schonert | Rugby Rising Locker Room Season 2

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

N
NH 28 minutes ago
'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments
J
JW 44 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

68 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Springbok Manie Libbok's next move has been confirmed Springbok Manie Libbok's next move has been confirmed