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Saracens lose their rookie loosehead for the rest of the season
By Online Editors
Saracens have been dealt a blow in picking up the thread following the threatened 35-point Gallagher Premiership deduction and a £5.3million salary cap breaches fine.
Young Ralph Adams-Hale, the 22-year-old prop who helped take up the recent World Cup slack by starting two Premiership matches and coming off the bench in two more, has been ruled out of the rest of the season after a total of 156 minutes of action that featured 31 tackles and 13 carries.
The 120kg loosehead, who came off the bench against Exeter in the 2019 Premiership final, was stretchered off at Kingsholm during the 21-12 success that was Saracens’ first win at Gloucester since 2015.
He had initial surgery on Sunday and will undergo a second operation on his damaged ankle in the coming days.
Last Saturday's win left Saracens in third place on 13 points following four matches, a tally that would drop to -22 if the points deduction isn’t successfully appealed. That would leave them 26 points behind bottom side Leicester who have four points so far.
(Continue reading below...)
Saracens boss Mark McCall has claimed the club has a plan to combat this worst-case scenario if the points deduction is implemented, a course of action that could impact on their defence of the European Champions Cup which they won last May in Newcastle a few weeks before lifting the Premiership title on June 1 at Twickenham.
"We have got a plan for the worst-case scenario which will affect our strategy around the Champions Cup," said the Saracens director of rugby in the wake of the win at Gloucester.
“Our job at the moment if the points deduction remains and the appeal is not successful is to try to stay up and that is what we will try and do.”
WATCH: The one line in the salary cap rules that is likely to become a legal battleground for Saracens
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Latest Comments
I agree.
I’d like to know what constitutes a 208 week ban though?
Must the eyeball be dislodged? Hanging by a vein?
Go to commentsAlso a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.
I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.
I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.
Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.
“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”
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