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'The culture at Saracens is second to none, that's evident for everyone to see'
By Online Editors
Despite many casting Saracens as the villains of the Premiership, England second row Maro Itoje claims the club's culture is 'second to none'. Their dramatic fall from grace had rivals branding the North London side cheats, but the British and Irish Lion, who committed his future to Saracens this week, is confident that the club's future is "brighter" than its past.
At the start of the year, Saracens were automatically relegated to the RFU Championship, following on from a £5 million plus fine and a 35 point reduction after it was found they had breached the Premiership salary cap. Yet Itoje maintains that it is culture that sets the team apart.
He told the club website: “The culture at Saracens is second to none and I think that’s evident for everyone to see. The excitement of this group is massive.
“I’m really looking forward to the future; the future is going to be brighter than our past. I think we have the foundations in place to make that happen.
“We have the players, we have talent, we have the coaches, we have the support from the backroom staff so the future is in our hands and we have the power to shape our own destiny.”
The club are looking to bounce back into the Gallagher Premiership after a year in the RFU Championship, and will attempt the feat with the vast majority of their first-team squad.
Itoje said: “One thing I know about Saracens is the calibre of players, if you look around our dressing room, we have players who are hungry to achieve.
“We’ve been successful but we’re not resting on our laurels. We want to push on, we want to achieve amazing things and to do that we have to put in the work day by day. The process has started already and day by day we’re going to work to get better and improve.”
“It’s always been the case at Saracens that they’ve focused on youth and had a strong Academy system." said the 25-year-old. "If you look at the first team now there’s a number of guys who have graduated through the Academy. This Championship year is the perfect year for them and I can’t wait to help them along their way.
“We’re really excited to firstly off this season well and in Europe as well before going on to the Championship, rebuild, focus on the fundamentals and come back and hopefully be stronger than ever.”
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Latest Comments
England haven’t won any major trophies since 2020. That isn’t solely down to Earl.
Ok so you were just making a non-sequiteur. How helpful!
Earl lost against Australia recently. So did Itoje, Genge, Stuart, Tom Curry, Freeman, Lawrence, and Feyi-Waboso. Presumably you think none of them will start for the Lions?
Go to commentsApology accepted.
It was true actually. Arteta hasn’t won much, nor slot. Pep has of course, and is a few years older. BUT - here’s the clincher: compare his trophy haul when he was THE SAME AGE AS your other examples! Boom. A vast difference exists in the ‘concrete’ examples you gave.
“*Football” Yeah, tell me your English without telling me. I’m Irish and our national sport is a very different code of football, alas the name is already taken. It will always be soccer to me.
The fact you have literally typed that you don’t know much about soccer then attempted to lecture others on it is almost impressive. Post-irony.
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