Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Saracens will not be saved from relegation

Ben Spencer

Saracens will not be saved from relegation and players are not threatening to strike as English rugby struggles to cope with the financial ramifications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ADVERTISEMENT

RugbyPass has been told there is no threat of a player strike in the wake of the 25 per cent wage cuts imposed by some Premiership clubs yesterday with all but Exeter expected to follow suit.

WATCH: Jim Hamilton is joined by Italy International and Benetton player Ian Mckinley to discuss the effects of COVID19 on the everyday life of a rugby player living in Italy.

Video Spacer

It has been suggested the players would not agree to training camps once the immediate threat of the virus has ended until their full contracts are honoured. The unprecedented pressure on finances and the negative publicity that kind of stand would deliver has seen top officials move swiftly to deny there is a strike threat or that Saracens will be saved from relegation by the disrupted season.

Damian Hopley, the chief executive of the Rugby Players Associaton which represents professional players in England, told RugbyPass: “Any talk of strike action is misplaced. We are only 24 hours into this process and we want to establish a mature best practice with the Premiership clubs, a number of whom are in a better position than others, like Exeter who aren’t cutting wages.

“Suggestions of players taking any action is grossly exaggerated and my personal view is how would they go on strike when they are not playing matches? A lot of players are distressed about what has come out and we all recognise we are living in unprecedented times and the last thing anyone wants to see is half the league go out of business. We are in constant dialogue with the Premiership about the news from the Government about support for businesses and players would not want to put their clubs or colleagues in jeopardy.

“Once we get the information we need, the players then face a straight forward chocie – do they accept the pay cuts or not. In the conversations we are having with the players they want to know if is this a deduction or deferment?

ADVERTISEMENT

“It is all about getting the most accurate information out to our membership and we recognise it is a time of crisis and we need to act collectively to come out the other end stronger. From an RPA perspective there is legal situation in terms of breach of contract but the last thing we all want is to throw money at lawyers when we need to get a clear direction of travel. There hasn’t been a uniform approach from the Premiership clubs and we are collecting information about the short and mid-term situation for players in terms of pay cuts.

“The meetings started on Thursday and were completed yesterday and this is about how the relationship between players, clubs and Unions redefined and are their better ways we can work. It is an horrific time and what is lost is that many clubs have backers who have stuck by them through thick and thin but away from rugby they are suffering horrendously at the moment. We understand the world is in freefall and all we are asking for is more information.“

With the Rugby Football Union ending all rugby below the Premiership, Championship leaders Newcastle have to wait until mid-April to find out if they are promoted while there are significant concerns over the ability of clubs such as Wasps – who are carrying debts of nearly £40m – to stay in business. Wasps are adamant their future is not in danger but their future may revolve around more loans from owner Derek Richardson. A scenario in which one of the Premiership clubs goes to the wall and that Saracens would then stay in the top flight has also been knocked down.

Saracens are still able to rely on the financial support of former chairman Nigel Wray and he has previously pledged to stand by the club despite standing down following the fine and points reductions which will see them operating with a much-changed squad in the Championship next season.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Premiership clubs and Newcastle shared out £200m this season from private equity company CVC who bought a 27 percent share of the competition with 12 teams also netting £350,000 each from the Saracens fine of more than £5m but it is understood 50 per cent of that nearly £13m windfall was used to clear old debts by the clubs.

The remaining money has been used for player wages and planned stadium redevelopments leaving clubs like Gloucester facing outgoings of £1m a month with no revenue coming in. This has triggered the wage cuts that have also seen players, coaches and officials in all of the home Unions accepting smaller pay packets for the foreseeable future.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

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

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones
Search