Saracens lose their rookie loosehead for the rest of the season

Saracens have been dealt a blow in picking up the thread following the threatened 35-point Gallagher Premiership deduction and a £5.3million salary cap breaches fine.

Young Ralph Adams-Hale, the 22-year-old prop who helped take up the recent World Cup slack by starting two Premiership matches and coming off the bench in two more, has been ruled out of the rest of the season after a total of 156 minutes of action that featured 31 tackles and 13 carries. 

The 120kg loosehead, who came off the bench against Exeter in the 2019 Premiership final, was stretchered off at Kingsholm during the 21-12 success that was Saracens’ first win at Gloucester since 2015.

He had initial surgery on Sunday and will undergo a second operation on his damaged ankle in the coming days. 

Last Saturday’s win left Saracens in third place on 13 points following four matches, a tally that would drop to -22 if the points deduction isn’t successfully appealed. That would leave them 26 points behind bottom side Leicester who have four points so far. 

(Continue reading below…)

Saracens boss Mark McCall has claimed the club has a plan to combat this worst-case scenario if the points deduction is implemented, a course of action that could impact on their defence of the European Champions Cup which they won last May in Newcastle a few weeks before lifting the Premiership title on June 1 at Twickenham.

“We have got a plan for the worst-case scenario which will affect our strategy around the Champions Cup,” said the Saracens director of rugby in the wake of the win at Gloucester.

“Our job at the moment if the points deduction remains and the appeal is not successful is to try to stay up and that is what we will try and do.”

WATCH: The one line in the salary cap rules that is likely to become a legal battleground for Saracens