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The 2019-20 Champions Cup and Premiership Finals will take place over the next two Saturdays and, for the first time in seven seasons, neither will feature Saracens. Instead, for the first time, Exeter will contest the pair of them. Both competitions are better for that.
In the past six seasons, the Saracens reached five Premiership finals, winning four of them, and four Champions Cup finals, winning three of them. But all those achievements are tainted.
Of course, Lord Myners ‘report on the Saracens’ salary cap indiscretions, and the resulting Premiership Rugby fine of nearly € 6 million and deductions of 105 points in total, were for infractions covering the 2016-17 seasons. , 2017-18 and 2018-19, because that is all that could be investigated.
During this time, the Saracens won two Premiership titles and two European Champions Cups. Last season, after beating Clermont in the 2017 European final and Exeter in the decider of the 2018 Premiership, they repeated their 2016 double by defeating Exeter and Leinster in both finals.
As this was the third time Exeter lost a final to a club found guilty of financial doping or cheating, in the past four seasons, the Chiefs had more right than most to feel aggrieved, and they are.
This is made clear in a new book, due out next month, by The Guardian rugby correspondent Robert Kitson, entitled: The Exe Men: The Extraordinary Rise of Exeter Chiefs. Excerpts from the book were published in The Observer on Sunday and sympathy in the west of the country for the Saracens, who will spend the next season in the championship, is scarce.
Veteran Exeter rugby director Rob Baxter, who spent hours studying spreadsheets to make sure the Chiefs stayed within the salary cap, notes that even infractions in the cases of a select few players in turn helped them to keep all your other players.
In all this, Baxter is not the only one who accepts that the Saracens do many things well. They are a superbly trained team, they have a brilliant academic system, they have developed a strong and winning culture, and they do a lot of good things within their local community.
But ultimately, the Saracens racked up trophies by assembling a team that no other club could afford, including Exeter, who by comparison is an honestly managed club and the only lucrative one in last season’s Premiership.
What is particularly irritating to Baxter is that the Saracens, who promised to fight the initial fine and deduction, have never hinted at an apology.
Indeed, a massive brawl between players on both sides when they met at Sandy Park last December was, according to Exeter players, instigated by a comment from Billy Vunipola to local team scrum half Nic White along the lines of: ‘Unfortunately , You have not done it’. I have a Premiership winner medal. “
Exeter CEO and Chairman Tony Rowe has voiced his criticism of the Saracens’ violation of the salary cap. Photograph: Alex Davidson / Getty Images
Far from being an apology in any way, this reflects a mindset within the Saracens that, as Baxter said, showed they were very happy to cheat to win titles and didn’t mind rubbing it off either.
There are also many monetary implications, as Exeter wing Don Armand highlights. Other players were paid less than their Saracen counterparts, which in turn gave the latter much more financial security, especially with off-the-field property investments to facilitate their retirement.
Players from clubs like Exeter may have been released, putting the team within the salary cap. Armand also points out that having titles on a player’s résumé makes them more valuable commodities if they keep going, witness the lucrative deals that some departing Saracen players have struck in France.
All those trophies that the Saracens accumulated also helped their players gain greater international recognition and, as Armand also points out, none of these career-changing events can ever be corrected.
There are also the trophies that the coaches and backroom staff missed, and this extends to all employees and people involved in an entire professional organization, not to mention the potentially denied celebrations to Exeter spectators and others, who bought tickets. season tickets or game tickets or traveled to away games.
Outside of the financial reward, players play rugby to win matches and trophies. More than anything, that’s what defines their careers. Unlike their amateur predecessors, they make incredible sacrifices in their quest for victories and trophies. Unlike their amateur predecessors, they hardly ever drink, except at end-of-season parties. So let’s face it, no less than their hobbyist predecessors, understandably they go out of their way to make up for it.
For a very select few, if those end-of-season parties come immediately after winning a trophy, then all-day Sunday pissing is even more appreciated. It makes all those punishing preseason, all those dingy, wet and cold Monday mornings, and all those injury rehab programs, all the more rewarding.
If a squad deceives them, they will never be able to recover those precious memories. And in a transitional entity like professional sports, never two finals of a season are made up of exactly the same staff.
Among rival presidents, Tony Rowe of Exeter has been the loudest of critics of the Saracens. He does not deny that the Saracens deserved to win last season’s final, but claims that his club lost to a superior team that Exeter could not afford because it stuck to the salary cap.
Rowe also notes that his Saracen counterpart, Nigel Wray, may not have been the only individual within that club who knew what was going on. Frankly, it’s amazing.
There should always be an asterisk next to the Saracens’ 2017-18 and 2018-19 Premiership victories. In fact, on the Wikipedia page on the Premiership there is a note attached: * The Saracens were found to be in breach of salary cap regulations during the indicated season.
Rowe still believes the Premiership should go further. The Saracens were shown to have cheated and therefore those titles should be removed from their name. Rowe does not say that Exeter had won them, or even wanted them. But the Saracens shouldn’t have them either. He is right.
By extension, there is also a cloud over the three Saracens Champions Cup titles. Of course, they deserved to beat Clermont Auvergne in the 2017 final, as they had against Racing the previous year, and they were also worthy winners against Leinster in the 2019 final and the 2020 quarter-finals.
The Saracens would not have progressed to the Champions Cup for the past three seasons if their cheating had been shown earlier.
That also sticks in the crop.
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