1
Saracens issue statement regarding their Barbarians players
By Ian Cameron
Saracens have issued their contingent of players involved with the Barbarians cancellation fiasco with a verbal tongue lashing.
The England Barbarians game set for Sunday had to be cancelled after a large cohort of players - including former England captain Chris Robshaw - breached their pre-agreed hotel bubble to visit a restaurant in the lead up to the game.
A number of Saracens players were among the ranks of the offenders in question.
Richard Wigglesworth, issued the following message: “Embarrassed and beyond gutted to have let Vern Cotter and the Barbarians down as well as the RFU. Should not have happened and for that I am truly sorry. I’ve let a lot of people down including myself and wish I’d done it differently. Sorry again.”
Wigglesworth’s Saracens teammate Jackson Wray has also apologised, saying that he is “devastated” the match is cancelled. Sarries' Scotland winger Sean Maitland was also involved in the outing in question.
Saracens have also issued a statement: "Saracens is extremely disappointed to learn that some of its players breached the agreed Covid code of conduct protocol whilst on Barbarians duty.
"Although not on club duty whilst with the Barbarians, these players have fallen well short of the high professional standards that are expected at Saracens. Representing the invitational side is a privilege which they have now missed out on due to their poor judgement.
"Management has spoken to the players involved about their responsibilities of representing Saracens away from the club and the impact that these actions have on everyone associated with the club. We are thinking particularly of our loyal supporters who have been magnificent in recent months and would have been looking forward to watching an extremely strong Saracens contingent at Twickenham on Sunday.
"All in question have apologised for their actions.
"The club will be making no further comment."
CEO of the Rugby Football Union Bill Sweeney shared this on Friday afternoon: “There has been a great deal of effort put into Covid codes of conduct and planning for games, including cooperation with Premiership clubs to release additional players to fulfil the fixture safely.
"We are all incredibly frustrated and disappointed that the actions of a number of Barbarians players mean we no longer feel it is safe for the game to go ahead."
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales have the same problem
3
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
4
Let's be real about these All Blacks
5
Latest Comments
i think Argentina v France could be a good game too, depending on which Argentina turns up. The most difficult to call is Scotland Australia.
Go to commentsSmith is playing a different game with the rest of the backs struggling to understand. That's the problem with so called playmakers, if nobody gets what they're doing then it often just leads to a turnover. It gets worse when Borthwick changes one of them, which is why they don't score points at the end. Sometimes having a brilliant playmaker can be problematic if a team cannot be built around them. Once again Borthwick seems lacking in either coaching or selection. I can't help but think it's the latter coupled with pressure to select the big name players.
Lastly, his forward replacements are poor and exposed either lack of depth or selection pressure. Cole hemorrhages scrum penalties whenever he comes on, opponents take advantage of the England scrum and close out the game. Is that the best England can offer?
Go to comments