Mark McCall: “You have to choose whether it’s going be the Premiership or Europe you compromise”
Saracens chief Mark McCall has defended his decision to rest his England players
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Saracens’ season is still alive.
Last Sunday’s 29-22 bonus-point win against Leicester Tigers in the Gallagher Premiership put them back in contention for the top four and it was the perfect response to their gut-wrenching defeat to arch-rivals Harlequins the week before.
“The win was exactly what we needed after the more difficult experience against Quins” Saracens boss Mark McCall said.
“The performance was the exact opposite of that just in terms of the energy the team had, how well they supported each other because there were plenty of things that put us under a little bit of pressure in the first half.
“We had to spend a lot of time in our 22 defending and I thought we just threw ourselves into the next thing really well.”
But what was a crucial success in the East Midlands may have come at a price.
With McCall opting to select the likes of England stars Maro Itoje and Tom Willis, under player welfare protocols, it means the pair won’t be able to play against Toulon in the Champions Cup this weekend.
Post-Leicester, McCall revealed he had already spoken to Itoje about this scenario and this week, the Saracens boss defended his selection decisions which will also see Jamie George, Ben Earl and Elliot Daly not travel to the Stade Felix Mayol.
This decision aligns with the mandatory rest periods following the Six Nations where players are required to miss one of the subsequent games.
“The regulations are there to protect the players' welfare,” McCall said.
“The same thing happened after the autumn internationals. It’s why some teams during the autumn internationals put out weaker sides in the pool stages of Europe and every club has got to choose whether or not it’s going to be the Premiership they compromise themselves in or Europe, and we took the decision collectively with the players as well that we would play them in the first two Premiership matches.”
The decision from Saracens has sparked debate with Harlequins boss Danny Wilson suggesting that naming a rotated side would be “disrespecting” the Champions Cup.
But McCall stressed that the squad he would be taking to the south of France was a more than capable one, with several internationals still available to him.
He added: “We are going to put out a really strong team. Probably going forward, it is not ideal that it is such a rigid three-week window. After the autumn internationals, you’ve got a three-week window as well. There are two European Cup games in the three weeks after the autumn internationals. So teams have got to make these kinds of decisions more and more. There used to be a longer window to rest the players. We made our decision midway through the Six Nations that we were going to go this route and everyone in the club supports it.”
Whichever way you look at it though, Saracens are underdogs to reach the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
Toulon are currently third in the Top 14, finished first in Pool 4 of the Champions Cup and have a very strong home record but McCall is hopeful that Saracens can challenge them after last weekend’s shot in the arm against Leicester.
“We know the scale of the task and challenge over there. I’m not sure they’ve lost at home in the last two years, to be honest. I think they’ve got a phenomenal home record and it’s a great place to go but it’s a hard place to go. The players have been buoyed by what happened at the weekend but we’re going to go and give it everything.”
