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Saracens set to come under salary cap scrutiny from Premiership Rugby - reports
By Alex Shaw
According to a report by Sportsmail, reigning Gallagher Premiership champions Saracens could be about to come under scrutiny for potential breaches of the salary cap.
As part of a four-month investigation, Sportsmail have reported that Saracens owner Nigel Wray has been in business with Owen Farrell, Mako and Billy Vunipola, and Richard Wigglesworth, with this a potential breach of the salary cap regulations in the competition.
The report also states that Wray co-owned houses with former players, with any costs towards accommodation something which should currently be included in a player's salary cap figure.
The investigation found that two investment property companies, ShahDan Limited and DanCallie Ltd, were set up in 2017, with Wray as sole shareholder and Daniel van den Heever, an associate of Wray, the sole director.
The names of both companies changed within months, however, with ShahDan Limited becoming VunProp Ltd and DanCallie Ltd becoming Wiggy9 Investments. The Vunipola brothers became joint directors at VunProp Ltd as 33.3% shareholders shortly after the name change, whilst similar happened at Wiggy9 Investments, with Wigglesworth owning 65% of shares in the company. Per Companies House, VunProp Ltd owns £1.5m worth of property, whilst Wiggy9 Investments' portfolio boasts £875,000 of property investment.
The report also states that the company Faz Investments Ltd was set up by former Saracens director Kamal Shah just a month after the fly-half signed a contract extension with the club in 2017. Farrell and Wray are the two shareholders listed, but the company has not yet filed any accounts.
Sportsmail state that the Premiership have declined to comment on whether or not they were informed of these arrangements, insisting that declarations by clubs are confidential, but that they will "look closely" at the information that the investigation has provided.
When RugbyPass reached out to Saracens, the club insisted that they are compliant with all salary cap regulations and that they have provided all the relevant information to the Premiership's salary cap manager.
The Premiership club have recently come under scrutiny for their signing of England international Elliot Daly, whilst still being able to extend the contracts of many players at the club. With large proportions of their squad full England internationals and homegrown players, coming through the Saracens academy, the club does benefit from a healthy amount of credits against the salary cap, but this report from Sportsmail will only add further fuel to the fire.
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Even with absences we still had the cattle to make the playoffs. As it was, we nearly stumbled our way into the top 8. Which shows just how easy it was to get there. And still we failed. As for Razor, there are many instances of him patching up the Crusaders roster. Numerous. Several players I'd never heard of. Also, using AB legend John Afoa was a classic.
But, some of the games we were losing were from schoolboy errors, or downright confusion. Either the players were really dumb (they weren’t) or they were poorly coached. Given the repetitive nature of errors, brain fades, poor decision making, & loose structures, this all lands with the coaching group.
With only six playoff spots now in SR, & Aussie franchises now consolidated to four, 2025 looks like a tight one. I'm picking we'll have to tough it out under Penney & hope for the best.
Go to commentsAgree we need a 10, 12, 13 refresh. ASAP. Well, next season now lol. Reiko should be put back on the wing. He'll be an absolute menace there. Imagine 11 Reiko 14 Clarke 15 Jordan as the backfield unit.
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