A bit quiet on here at the moment, so just a quick chat. Saracens will be relegated this season end for salary cap breaches. Given the slap on the wrist Rugby league clubs are given for cap breaches, I applaud union bosses for being so strict. I say this knowing Trinity are never likely to be a position of cap breaches, and didn’t the club get fined in the recent past, for not paying minimum wage to Academy player, although I think this was something to do with traveling allowance.

If i'm not wrong did'nt we get points deducted for salary cap breaches about our second season in super league ! Without any funding from super league.

Thinking back we had 4 point deduction reduced to 2 points on appeal , a few clubs supporters supported us at the time one mainley being Hull fc.

Saracens have wilfully taken the full on p1ss compared with the recent super league examples. Good to see Union take strong action though.

Think the minimum wage thing with our academy players was a legal thing and was to do with travel time not being paid. Wasn’t a rugby administration issue

The Saracens issue was far bigger than those RL recently. Doesn't mean we are softer.
The punishment fits the crime.

It's not only relegation it's a 5 million fine. The club have built a squad of internationals , won both European and domestic titles. To be honest they decided to on relegation rather than open the books to an enquiry. I believe the recently departed chairman and majority share holder banked all the signings personally while creating a new ground / stadium .
It's believed they over spent by 1 million on wages .
It will be interesting to see how many squad members they will be able to hang on to and what other clubs will be willing to take the big earners on. I have heard the squad are prepared to take a massive wage cut to continue playing at the Saracens .
I hope they can regroup and find promotion back at the first attempt.

The crazy thing is, the league they have been relegated to has no salary cap so they can carry on spending what they want for a season with no fear of penalty

Yes it is crazy ft, but with the lack of European rugby paying wages will probably be impossible. I honestly think it will make the club stronger and if the club can find support from the outgoing chairman's family things could work out. I hope it does

I hop

Theoretically the two caps are the same but in reality they are not.

Leagues caps main purpose is to stop clubs from going bust by spending too much. Sure that will theoretically create a level playing field and to a degree it has. Though in the case of ourselves and say Salford just being able to reach the cap is bit a dream.

The pickings are slim in RL and frankly there is no need for any club to flout the rules like Saracens did to gain an advantage, so the transgressions and fines will always be small.

RU in the UK is different, it’s awash with money and talented players are available from all over the world including RL. The temptations are huge and the clubs are financially strong enough to take risks and pay the price. There is no talk of Saracens folding, imagine a League club surviving that, look at the fall of the Bulls, not a salary cap issue but similar.

RL can’t allow a Saracens full stop, even our idiots can see that, so the cap is enforced and it seems to work. We can’t afford a second Bradford, we’ve barely survived that one! Sadly RU is now so strong it can afford the loss of a top club and thus punish as it sees fit. Must be a nice place to be.

I also think the RU have played a part in the Saracens saga. Squad sizes remain high because of the amount of games played
When you take in to account Saracens provide at least 6 internationals to the England squad quality replacements are required to enable the club to compete at league level. I doubt very much the England squad would have seen the same level of success had Saracens not have supplied 6 internationals.

Indeed, sadly RU now operates on a completely different level these days. Other than using the same shaped ball comparisons are meaningless imho and have been for years.

Agree fc.
Ru come on over the last 10 years with a last 5 year explosion. It's difficult to explain the increase in the following but it's probably part due to sponsorship, marketing and the International scene.
I just don't see rl ever achieving the same levels of interest . Ru developed both on and off the field and rt hasnt. The domestic game at both levels are miles apart .