Saracens begin European Champions Cup defence in toxic state and with a target on their back

The off-field backlash for their role in English rugby’s worst-kept secret will have been comfortably swallowed by many at Saracens but the prospect of taking an on-field shellacking will be a far less palatable prospect for Mark McCall’s players.

Ever since the days when former chief executive Edward Griffiths used to dress up as a medieval knight and stand glowering over McCall’s shoulder in press conferences – yes it really happened, I was there – Saracens have been at ease with being different. A bit odd, even.

Even before that, employing snarling snapdragons Eddie Jones and Brendan Venter as head coaches revealed a club which couldn’t give two hoots who their friends on the outside were.

“No-one likes us, we don’t care,” was a regular refrain for their players. Now, that dislike has turned into outright hostility – feigned or otherwise – in some quarters.

Rumours Saracens have been finding creative ways to side-step the salary cap have been in existence since the financial control was put in place in the late 1990s and reports they were being formally investigated by Premier Rugby for alleged breaches first surfaced back as 2014.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve been pretty much universally disliked, so it’s not new to us,” said their England centre Alex Lozowski this week. “What’s happened has made that a bit worse, I guess. The target on our backs may be that little bigger now.”

So many times down the years the club that billionaire owner Nigel Wray has transformed from also-rans to Europe’s dominant force have bounced back stronger when faced with adversity.

But this is adversity is different. This feels like they could have been holed below the waterline. The £5.3million fine and 35-point deduction is a devastating hammer which has shaken the club to its very core. Players are unsure what their futures look like. Employees aren’t sure if the club will retain them. The club is unsure if it will ever recover even a semblance of a reputation.

And it’s in this toxic state that Saracens begin the defence of the European Champions Cup today, knowing the eyes of the sport are on them for all the wrong reasons.

Minus England stars Owen Farrell, Jamie George, Maro Itoje, Mako and Billy Vunipola and Elliot Daley, who has yet to play a game for his new club since signing from Wasps and would be forgiven for questioning the wisdom of his decision, Mark McCall’s team face French giants Racing Metro in Paris. Even in normal times this would be a tough game. These are far from normal times for Saracens.

But as Martin Johnson used to say when struggling for words when England coach; we are where we are. And Saracens, rightly or wrongly, are in a deep, deep hole.

McCall’s men won nine out of nine games last season on their way to a third Champions Cup title in four years, but with their Premiership status now in clear and present danger following the 35-point deduction, there is a strong case to be made for the defending champions downing tools in Europe and focusing on domestic survival.

The decision to rest their World Cup stars, an eminently sensible one on welfare grounds alone, strongly indicates Saracens intend to train all their guns domestically this season. It feels the sensible way to deploy their resources. It feels like survival mode. Any chance of an appeal against their punishment appears increasingly remote.

Pride, coupled with an unparalleled squad depth, will almost certainly prevent a real hiding but, whether they chose to engage or not, McCall’s team are in need of a miracle to win at the imposing Stade de Defence this afternoon.

Racing, a hugely wealthy club with deep playing and financial resources of their own, are desperate to turn their own investment into tangible European silverware and they will surely never face Saracens in such a vulnerable state again.

Jackson Wray, a one-club stalwart throughout his professional playing career, captains the besieged North Londoners on his 50th European appearance while Jack Singleton starts at hooker after playing a peripheral World Cup role for England and young Welsh prop Rhys Carre makes his first Champions Cup appearance for his new club.

But with Racing naming a star-studded line up including Scotland No10 Finn Russell and hugely influential France international Camille Chat at hooker, Saracens are staring down a first European defeat in almost 18 months.

With Pool Four also containing Munster and Ospreys, this was already known as the “pool of death”.

In their current bruised and bloodied state, in Paris, in their first European Cup game of the season, the defending champions will be fighting for their lives.