By Jason Harris
July 4 2002

After a three year spell in the French first division, former Saracens lock Craig Yandell returns to the Men in Black. This brings to six the number of new personnel brought in by the club since the end of last season. The 28 year old returns after leaving for Narbonne in 1999 and moving to La Rochelle a year later.

Yandell was quoted on the official press release:

"I'm really excited about coming back to Saracens. I had decided that it was time I returned to England and the first thing I wanted to do was to see if there was any chance of a return to my old club before I tried anywhere else."

"I really enjoyed my last stint at the club and have very fond memories of playing at Watford. My last two seasons at the club we won the Tetley's Bitter Cup and came runners up in the league and then finished third the year after. By the looks of the squad and the coaching set-up this time round we should be pushing to get ourselves back into contention."

Coach Wayne Shelford was equally pleased to see Yandell return to the fold:

"He is a good ball winner whose defence is sound, and we’ll work with him to make him a more dominant personality on the field." Shelford said of his new recruit.

Yandell firmly believes that his time on the continent has improved his game and sees his return to Sarries as a chance to impress. Last time he was at the club he had to fight for the second row places with internationals Troy Coker, Paddy Johns, Danny Grewcock and Tony Copsey. All have gone now, of course, and it will be a huge second row partnership if Yandell and namesake Craig Quinnell are paired together in the boilerhouse.

Though he has been out of the country for 36 months, Yandell has always kept in touch with his old mates at Sarries and is looking forward to renewing old acquaintances such as the ones with Kris Chesney, Kyran Bracken and Richard Hill.

Yandell joins the rest of the squad for pre-season training, including a few days at an army commando training camp, on Monday week.