JEREMY GUSCOTT
OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK
SARACENS are the defending Premiership champions, and Mark McCall’s side are looking more and more capable as we get to the business end of the season.
So capable that it’s hard to see anyone taking the title off them. Last week they overwhelmed Bristol at Ashton Gate, and recently I saw them pretty well shut down Bath at The Rec, while delivering the equivalent of a devastating boxer’s counter-punch by scoring a try from deep.
It’s a bit unfair to say that Saracens are getting back to what they were when they were winning European Cups and Premierships almost every season, because, obviously, at that time their salary cap breaches were a factor.
However, Saracens have a very familiar look, in that they are all in sync and intertwined, knowing what to do, and when and how to do it. As for team spirit, even though they are emotionless in terms of execution, you can see their bond when you look at their post-match ‘Tiki-Tonga’ routine and the way they celebrate hard.
They also have the emotional factor of it being like the end of an era, with the two Vunipola brothers and Owen Farrell leaving the club at the end of the season.
I’m not sure that the remaining Saracens players will believe it is quite so radical, but there’s no doubt that the trio are hugely respected among their teammates as talisman players during a decade in which their European Cup and Premiership achievements were unrivalled among English clubs.
When Mako Vunipola started to break through, he did not have the reputation of being the best scrummager, but his hard work has paid off, and now he’s viewed as pretty accomplished. Where he was out of the ordinary was as a ball-carrier who, at his best, was as good as any prop in the world.
Mako was very quick around the field, and his handling and ability to threaten defences saw him recognised widely as the best loose-head in the world, winning 79 England caps, and nine Lions caps on the 2013, 2017 and 2021 tours.
Billy Vunipola could also lay claim, at times, to being the best No.8 in the world, because of his unrivalled power. His ability to generate momentum from a standing start by pushing players off was exceptional, as was his ability to offload in contact, and it earned him 75 England caps, and a place in the 2017 Lions tour squad – although he had to withdraw due to injury.
The other factor with Billy was that the more games he played, the fitter and more effective he’d get, so his best form was not down to training as much as it was playing.
Owen Farrell has been such a big figure at Saracens that it seems that nothing has happened at the club for
