By Jonny Browne
August 1 2021

This may seem a slightly odd piece to be writing on 1st August, during a busy summer featuring a Lions tour in which Sarries fans have a vested interested, the squad featuring as it does no fewer than five of our players (plus Liam Williams who, for me, will always be a Sarrie and with no rational basis to believe this I hope he’ll come back one day); the Olympics have disappointingly seen both the GB  Women’s and Men’s Sevens squads  - featuring our own Emma Uren, Deborah Fleming  Holly Aitchison and Ben Harris – miss out on medals;  there are the small matters of dealing of what is hopefully the endgame in terms of the pandemic and becoming cautiously accustomed to the unlocking of restriction here in England, not to mention everyone endeavouring to arrange a much-needed summer holiday; oh, and then there’s Mrs Jonny’s other sporting love, cricket, as, like some of you reading this, we’re looking forward to a day at Lord’s for the Test against India. 

What prompted me to think of writing about next season, in the midst of all the above, was the notable excitement I’ve seen on social media over the past few weeks among the many Sarries fans who have signed up for 2021-22 season tickets, a number of whom for the first time, and in these strange days of mixed messages and labyrinthine travel restriction I can never tire of seeing the simple and happy declaration “I’m now officially a season ticket holder” – not exactly “ich bin ein Berliner”, but it’s making me smile broadly every time I read it: my understanding is that the number of seasonal members, as we’re now called, has, according to Lucy Wray at the SSA AGM last Tuesday, now topped 5,000 (with the aim of hitting 6,000 – more on that in another “Sticky), and it’s pleasingly clear that anticipation is running very high for 2021/22 as we return to what we all believe is our rightful place at the top table of English rugby – the elite of European rugby will of course have to wait a year for the red and black carpet to be rolled out as in 2021/22 we'll compete in the Challenge Cup.

I was particularly gladdened by the response to one new seasonal member’s enquiry on Facebook recently about the likelihood of meeting what he termed “rugby buddies” when he starts attending games: everyone who replied, and there were many, told him that he won’t have any problem whatsoever making new friends, and that he won’t regret joining the family. I’d heartily endorse both sentiments, and my advice would be to start by just saying “hello” to the people nearby in the Olympic bar or whichever stand you’ll be sitting in – a conversation is bound to strike up.      

All this got me wondering, though, about how our first season back among the big hitters might pan out......

In terms of the division we’re re-joining, the landscape has changed a bit since Sarries’ final Premiership game of 2019-20, when what seems an age ago we drew 17-17 with a Bath side assisted by a clever piece of play from our formerly own Ben Spencer, although it will be a mere eleven months since that match when we step out at Ashton Gate on 17^th September.  

A significant change since our last acquaintance with the Premiership has been that the first phase of the expansion to 13 then 14 clubs has happened, with Warriors being spared relegation at the end of 2020/21 and Sarries’ promotion making up the 13 clubs (so that’s two extra games to fit in), while - were the season to turn out disastrously - Sarries would have a similar cushion – but let’s not go there….

Opinions differ as to what ring-fencing, however temporary it turns out to be, has done, or will do, to the Premiership as a spectacle; observing as a relative outsider last season, however,  there seemed to have been a lot of highly entertaining games played with the figurative shackles off  – certainly there were quite a few points-fests and some very expansive rugby played.

In terms of the competition, there have been quite a few changes since we last crossed swords with English rugby’s heavyweights (although given the size of some of the packs we faced in the Championship one could argue we did that last season…..) and it feels like there’s something of a power shift underway in the English game, with the likes of Tigers and Sharks making significant improvements, partly by sprinkling themselves with Sarries stardust in the form of red and black legends Steve Borthwick and Alex Sanderson at the respective helms, and making some strong additions to their squads; Quins (says he through gritted teeth) have, conversely, improved remarkably since dispensing with the services of the one-time Wolf King, Paul Gustard, with youngsters Marcus Smith and Louis (son of Michael) Lynagh prominent in their revival and ultimate triumph in the Premiership final; Bristol Bears, albeit now stripped of homecoming Sarries Ben Earl and Max Malins who lit up Ashton Gate during their sojourn there, tasted success in Europe and will be a force to reckon with once more; Saints ultimately had a decent season and have something to build on; London Irish, in their excellent new stadium can I think start to look up; Bath and Wasps have more work to do, and Warriors, Gloucester and Falcons may struggle.

Exeter, our closest rivals in recent years, are for me hard to read and their 2021/22 will be interesting to observe: after winning the Double in what some might say was a heavily Covid-disrupted season with the best side in the country “taken out” by other events (I like Francis Urquhart couldn’t possibly comment), the Chiefs ended 2020-21 with no silverware after being outclassed by Leinster in the Champions Cup and surrendering their Premiership title (having also relinquished top spot in the table to Bristol) in thrilling fashion to Quins; I am looking forward to seeing how they fare in 2021/22 – will they come roaring back determined to, as they might see it, show us all who’s boss, or, perhaps having peaked, will they drop back to join a group of four or five title chasing peers?   

I won’t go into too much detail on our squad for next season, which is comprehensively covered elsewhere on the forum, but while some may say we’ve been weakened since 2019/20 by the loss of Brad, Wiggy, Ben, Will Skelton, Titi Lamositele, George Kruis, Mike Rhodes and Jack Singleton, we have nonetheless retained the seasoned internationals who form the core of the squad and the high-quality loanees have returned, hopefully pleased to be home having been enriched by a year in different environments, with Ben Earl, Max Malins, Alex Lozowski and Nick isiewke joining the already back and settled Nick Tompkins and Alex Goode.

We have three promising new signings in scrum halves Ruben De Haas (who looked very useful when I saw him play for the USA at Twickenham) and Ivan Van Zyl, plus the Italian international tighthead, Marco Riccione. We are also it seems, according to Gordon Banks speaking at the SSA AGM, looking to sign a second row. Stalwarts like Baz and Duncan Taylor remain and we have a host of emerging stars, the likes of Manu Vunipola, Dom Morris, Sean Reffell, Andy Christie, Elliot Obatoyinbo, Ralph Adams-Hale at al.

Turning to the fixture list, the start of the season hasn’t on the face of it been terribly kind to Sarries, facing as we do difficult away games at Bristol and Leicester, between which we have a free weekend, one of two created by the expansion to 13 clubs, followed by a winnable first home game against Falcons: these are of course the four weeks (which include the free weekend) we will be without our Lions players: hopefully we’ll see Elliot, Jamie, Mako, Maro and Owen back in the black and red for the game Bath at the Rec on 17thr October.

As always, we have the Autumn Internationals and Six Nations to contend with in terms of squad depletion, with the inevitable mixed results, although I do wonder if Eddie Jones and the other national coaches are planning for 2023 - perhaps also giving the Lions a break in the Autumns- how many of our own players will we lose?  Will we see the end of some distinguished international careers? I’m fearing that Billy for one may very sadly have played his last game for England.

Skipping forward to the run-in at the business end of the season, the closing sequence of games isn’t too bad, with only Sharks away at the beginning of April looking genuinely challenging, and Exeter near the end of the month the potentially toughest home encounter; then, if we’re in contention for the top four, we could do worse than Worcester away, Saints at home and Gloucester away as our last three games.

So where will we end up?

There’s no doubt that we still have a very strong squad, and will hopefully cope with the inevitable injuries, international calls and the odd suspension, and although much may come to depend on how quickly the younger players adapt, several of them had a taste of the Premiership during the ill-fated 2019-20 season.

With the evolution towards a more expansive game in the Premiership as evinced by last season, Sarries will be a good fit – in the Championship, admittedly against more modest opposition than we’ll face next season, we played some spectacular rugby.

I’m fairly confident that StoneX, even with a reduced capacity, will remain something of a fortress - we’ll pick up wins in most home games and this will be the bedrock of our season. We can also target away wins at the likes of Warriors, Falcons, Gloucester, Irish, Bath, Wasps, and maybe Saints. 

With the above taken into account, my prediction is that this coming season will be one of consolidation as we play catch-up with the stronger sides; I’d dearly love to be wrong but it’s going to be a big task to storm back into the Premiership and win it at the first time of asking, as some are hubristically predicting, but we will certainly finish in the top half and if we can build from a strong home record and pick up enough points away from home, we can reach 80 points which should see us close to if not into the play-offs given that there are potentially 10 extra points required this season.

We do I believe have a strong chance of picking up some silverware in Europe, although at the time of writing the format and draw for the Challenge Cup have still to be confirmed – I can however see the core of Champions Cup experience we still have at the club taking us all the way to Marseille (our tickets are booked just in case).

So, what do you think?