Saracens won't breach salary cap

13 April 2012

Saracens are rugby's greatest example of diminishing returns. Despite receiving more than £10million from owner Nigel Wray, the Zurich Premiership strugglers have been getting steadily worse since the heady days of their English Cup triumph at Twickenham in 1998.

They are second from bottom and were only saved from a battle to avoid relegation by Rotherham's awful results this season. It's a sorry state of affairs and for Sarries' long-suffering fans it is going to require another leap of faith to fork out for those season tickets for 2004-5.

The club are trying to win over the doubters by talking a good game, but the real problem is that it has all been heard before. There were the optimistic noises delivered in the South African accent of Francois Pienaar followed by the massacred vowels of New Zealander Buck Shelford. The mantle of director of rugby is now with Australian Rod Kafer.

But unlike Pienaar and Shelford, Kafer will not be allowed to become the sole focus of attention. If next season really does signal a significant change in fortunes, it will be down to the small group of investors who help Wray fund the club, as well as chief executive Mark Sinderberry, Kafer and first-team coach Steve Diamond.

It is impossible to include the firstteam squad in that list because the composition has yet to be confirmed. Sarries, once again, are in the middle of a major shake-up and new signings are mounting up. Diamond has brought with him key players from his old club Sale, including Alex Sanderson, Iain Fullerton and Kevin Yates, while Dan Scarbrough is joining from Leeds and Hugh Vyvyan from Newcastle.

The club also are talking to French star Olivier Magne, while they failed in an attempt to snatch Olly Barkley from Bath.

As Saracens prepare to change up to 15 players in their current squad, Sinderberry is quick to silence whispers that they are managing to evade next season's £1.97m salary cap.

It is a claim the club have faced since the game went professional in England in 1996, but independent auditors have failed to uncover anything untoward. Sarries' books - and those of the other 11 Premiership clubs - will be closely examined next season and Sinderberry has no doubts they will pass inspection again.

Wray believes Sinderberry will be key to Sarries' future success. For Sinderberry, that kind of support has been important as he seeks to bring stability to a club that have lurched from one makeover to another.

The decorators are in again but Sinderberry insists they are working to much tighter controls and the end product will be more in keeping with English heritage.

Sinderberry wants to return to a largely English-qualified squad - an approach that has the full support of Kafer and Diamond.

Sinderberry said: "Our plans for next season should see the club operating with between 32 to 37 players including those in the academy, which compares to 27 plus those on shortterm contracts to cover for players on World Cup duty this season.

"We are very aware of the salary cap and the limitations that imposes. What many people don't realise is that we can fund our new players from within the cap because we have 10 to 15 players coming out of contract. Patently it's not in our interests to remain near the bottom of the Premiership and that's why we have made changes. We have tremendous untapped talent and we want to get back to the years 1997-99 when we had a far greater percentage of Englishqualified players in the squad."

Sarries are still determined to sign an English-qualified outside-half and Sinderberry admitted they had been "very interested" in getting Barkley. The man they choose will have to be a goal-kicker to supplement the talents Thomas Castaignede already brings to the No10 jersey. It's just one of the challenges facing Diminishing Returns RFC next season.

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Saracens won't breach salary cap

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