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Saracens confirm new head and defence coaches in wake of Sanderson's exit

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Mark McCall has reacted to the loss of Alex Sanderson, his defence and forwards coach at Saracens, by promoting from within at the London club, appointing skills coach Joe Shaw as head coach and upgrading Adam Powell from senior academy coach to defence coach. 

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Sale confirmed on Friday the RugbyPass exclusive from last week that the long-serving Sanderson would become their new director of rugby following the departure last month of Steve Diamond for personal reasons. 

Saracens have a long history of promoting from within when it comes to filling staff vacancies and the exit of Sanderson has quickly proven to be no different with the elevation of Shaw and Powell to fill the void.  

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A former Sale, Northampton, Newcastle and England 7s player, Shaw joined Saracens as an academy coach and moved into the senior team skills coaching role in 2013. Powell, meanwhile, played 135 times for Saracens before ending his career at Newcastle and then becoming senior academy coach at Saracens in 2017. 

“If you have watched what we have done over the last ten, eleven years, what we try to do in the organisation is promote from within when we can,” said McCall at a media session ahead of Saracens’ opening match on Saturday in the Trailfinders Cup, a pre-season tournament that will lead into the start of the Championship in March. 

“We do that in the playing group, our academy forms the foundation of our playing group. And similarly with staff as well, when there is an opportunity to promote from within we take that. In terms of the coaching staff, Adam Powell, who has been at the top end of our academy staff, will step up into a senior role as defence coach. Adam is somebody who has had a long association with Saracens. And Joe Shaw, who has been part of the coaching team for the last eight years, will step up into the head coach position.”

McCall added that he was optimistic this double appointment was the right way for Saracens to go after the loss of Sanderson. “I’m very confident,” he said. “We have this philosophy, this promote from within philosophy, for a very long time. 

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“I have been coaching with the current coaching staff – Dan Vickers, Kevin Sorrell, Joe Shaw, Ian Peel – for a very, very long time and Adam has been more or less with us for a fair bit of that as well. We are a team that works very well together. Alex is great coach, a great person and a great friend of ours. 

“We were very determined when this began years ago that the club would never be reliant on one person. It would be a very poor organisation, a very average organisation, which does that. Down the years we have had some very significant people who have left the club, Brendan (Venter), Andy Farrell, Paul Gustard, Steve Borthwick, and Alex is one of the great contributors to our journey and our story these last ten, eleven years. 

“But we have got some great people left in the club who are very excited with the playing group we have assembled for the 2021/22 season. I have said to you what the coaching staff is going to look like. I have worked with our performance manager Phil Morrow for 20 years now, so we have got a lot of very good people who are very good at their jobs in the organisation.”

Referring specifically to the departure of Sanderson to Sale, McCall said his assistant will head to Manchester with the best wishes of Saracens. “We’re delighted for Alex. What we pride at the heart of the club is the development of the individual in a professional sense and as people and we feel very fortunate to have had Alex for as long as we have had, 17 years. 

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He is an outstanding coach, an outstanding person, and we are delighted that he has got this opportunity to progress his career. I talked to him a lot over the last four, five weeks. Yes, it was a very, very hard decision for him but we all respect the decision he has made.” 

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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