Fans fear the Saracens controversy will damage Eddie Jones' England

After Saracens were docked 35 points and fined £5.36million by Premiership Rugby for breaching the salary cap regulations, questions are being raised about how this will affect the England national team. 

The reigning Gallagher Premiership and Champions Cup winners dropped to 12th in the league table on -26 points, but have been reinstated to fourth place after they said they will be appealing the punishment.

With nine of England’s World Cup final squad coming from Saracens, they make up the core of Eddie Jones’ side. They may not be the most popular side across Europe, but it is hard to deny the correlation between Saracens’ success in recent years and England’s.

The London outfit have won three of the last four Champions Cups, only failing in 2018, which happened to be a disappointing year for them by their standards. That was also England’s poorest year since 2015, as they won the Grand Slam and a Six Nations title in the two seasons prior to 2018 and reached the RWC final this year. 

Many people on social media have pondered what ramifications the PRL sanctions might have on England. It is unclear what the true consequences of the fine and points deduction will be if the appeal is unsuccessful, but this is an unprecedented punishment. 

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Should the club be relegated, there will likely be an enormous exodus from Allianz Park. But that may still be the case even if they avoid the drop as they would need to cover costs. 

With a contingent of the England team potentially scattering across the country to other clubs, it would undoubtedly improve the competitiveness of the Premiership which may, in turn, benefit the national side. 

Equally, it will mean that the core of the England squad are no longer playing alongside each other week on week in the biggest games club rugby has to offer. What is worse is that some players may be lured by the wealthy French clubs, meaning they could no longer play for England. 

As it stands, fears over their futures, combined with the pressure to avoid relegation, could affect form for their country in the 2020 Six Nations.  Another potentially damaging aspect of this ordeal is what will happen to the Saracens academy, which has developed some world-class players over the years. 

If that is damaged by these events, the England team loses a rich source of talent, which many fans seem all too aware of. This is what has been said:

This decision by Premiership Rugby has been welcomed by many fans across Europe, and should Saracens be found guilty there are steps that must be taken to ensure the salary cap regulations are adhered to. 

However, while fans are generally happy with this decision, many have pointed out that it is naive not to expect some permutations for the England team. 

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