Friday, April 17, 2015

Saracens may not be popular but who else has the steel to hold off Clermont?

2:08 PM

Mark McCall’s men are the unloved flag-bearers for the Premiership in the European Champions Cup semi-finals, and Mark McCall’s maverick methods mean they will have a chance on Saturday

• Owen Farrell fit to return for Saracens’ semi-final showdown in France

For the third successive year Saracens are the last English side standing in the Europe’s premier competition. And still people are sceptical about them, struggling to see beyond the cliche of a club with delusions of fez-headed grandeur, an allegedly creative attitude to the salary cap and an unromantic gameplan. Their Houdini-style quarter‑final escape against Racing Métro, we are told, was more about luck than judgment.


Fair summary or jealous fiction? The financial support of their wealthy South African backers is real enough – as are the club’s current losses of £5m per season – but the balance sheet and kick‑chase jibes do not tell the entire story. The team Nigel Wray and friends helped propel from a public park in Southgate to Europe’s top table remain among the more fascinating sporting case studies anywhere in the world. Which other English club would have prepared for Saturday’s colossal Clermont game by bringing in a Gaelic football coach? Luck – and money – is not the only reason they lose infrequently.


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from Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1DsxFpB

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