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'There's loads of them': Saracens reel off list of stars to watch out for in the Championship

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Championship club Saracens finally return to competitive action this Saturday, their Trailfinders Cup match at Ealing arriving 15 weeks after they played their last Gallagher Premiership match at home to Bath in early October, a game that ended in a draw at Allianz Park.

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The Trailfinders Cup is a three-team pre-season tournament featuring Saracens, Ealing and Doncaster which will fill next six weekends ahead of the planned March 6 start to the second-tier Championship, a league that currently expects to have two conferences of six teams. 

Saracens are expected to win their way back into the Premiership following their automatic demotion for repeated salary cap breaches, but they will attempt to earn promotion with a very different squad compared to what they had at their disposal when reaching the Heineken Champions Cup semi-finals last September.

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Referee JP Doyle joins Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson on RugbyPass Offload

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Referee JP Doyle joins Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson on RugbyPass Offload

By the time they played Racing in Paris, they had already shipped players such as Ben Earl out on loan, lost George Kruis to Japan while they have now resigned themselves to not having their established Test players at their disposal for most of the Championship season. 

For instance, only Billy Vunipola of their England Test contingent will be involved versus Ealing, but it’s a scenario that has left director of rugby Mark McCall excited about what can be achieved with the club’s lesser-known players.

Asked what names rugby fans should look out for when following Saracens’ Championship campaign, McCall reeled off a list of relatively unknown players to watch out for. “There’s loads of them,” he enthused. “Ralph Adams-Hale is coming back after a 15 months breakage. Not playing this weekend but he is very close to being back playing again.

“Tom Woolstencroft, although he is not young, is leading our side and he is getting better and better. We have Joel Kpoku, who is suspended at the moment (due to the Barbarians), but his second row partnership with Callum Hunter-Hill we’re looking forward to. Sean Reffell, he’s carrying a little bit a niggle, and Andy Christie in the back row. 

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“I’m making sure I don’t miss anybody out now. Manu Vunipola, his development – again, he suspended at the moment. Elliot (Obatoyinbo) at full-back is going really well as well. So lots of younger players.

“We are really, really happy with the squad we have assembled,” he added. “We have just got to look forward, just roll with the punches at the moment. We don’t have control over how the Championship looks but we are just looking forward to playing again.”

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J
JW 1 hour 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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