Gloucester fans tease Saracens with fake money as Mark McCall breaks silence on salary cap saga

Gloucester fans wave fake money during the Premiership match against Saracens
PA
George Flood9 November 2019

Gloucester fans were having fun at Saracens' expense as some waved fake money during their Gallagher Premiership clash.

The reigning English and European champions travelled to Kingsholm on Saturday for their first match since it was alleged after a nine-month investigation that they had breached the Premiership’s £7million salary cap in each of the past three ­seasons.

Saracens were fined more than £5.3million and hit with a 35-point deduction, though the punishment has been suspended while the club - who have acknowledged administrative errors which have been addressed but do not believe they have broken the salary cap - launch an appeal, with a final decision expected next year.

Sections of the Gloucester support were eager to tease their opponents on Saturday, with fans waving fake banknotes in the stands and others wearing hats that read '-26', in reference to the number of points Saracens would have if the deduction was enforced now.

Saturday's game at Kingsholm was televised on BT Sport and beforehand Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall - who did not appear at the Champions Cup launch on Wednesday - spoke for the first time since the story broke earlier this week.

"It's been a really challenging week, as you can imagine," McCall said during an interview with Martin Bayfield. "I'm thrilled with how the players and the staff have rallied during the week and got on with the task at hand, which is all that we can do.

"This group in particular have showed a lot of grit and a lot of toughness over the last four weeks and we're going to have to show that today against a full-strength Gloucester side."

Pushed on if he had ever questioned how Saracens have signed players or if they had been breaching the salary cap, he responded: "I understand why you're asking me that question, but hopefully you understand that the club are appealing the decision and in those circumstances it's probably not right for me to add to what has already been released by the club in way of statements."

McCall admitted that the potential deduction would likely change his approach to squad management for the remainder of the campaign.

"In all likelihood yes," he said. "I think those decisions are ones we are considering at the moment. All of this has happened a little bit unexpectedly at the start of the week and we've got some big decisions to make in that regard."

PA

On the players' reaction to the situation, McCall said: "I think they were shocked if I'm absolutely honest, but like I said at the start of the interview they've been magnificent in terms of how they've rallied together and got on with the job in hand.

"I guess my job at the moment is to get on with the rugby and try to get the best out of this group and that's what we are going to try and do."

McCall insisted that there had been no discussions over the possible need to trim the size of Saracens' squad and revealed that there had been an internal show of unity from the club's World Cup contingent.

"As you know from down the years, we've got a really tight group here and we were really encouraged that all our World Cup players were in twice last week and it was certainly an internal show of unity," he added.

"Today's just about the players fighting for each other and supporting each other and that's all."

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