Saracens plead their innocence but rugby union’s whole structure is on trial | Michael Aylwin


The punishment for Nigel Wray’s team has caught many by surprise but it has exposed problems the game faces

Pioneering darlings of English rugby or hateful cheats? The verdict on Saracens continues to swing to impressively wild extremes, even by the standards of a sport that, 24 years into its professional era, has still to settle on anything like an equilibrium.

Following the Premiership’s decision to puff out its chest and get macho all of a sudden on the matter of its salary cap, the assessment du jour is hateful cheats but, as usual, the boring truth lies somewhere in between.

Related: Hypocrisy is in the air as Premiership rivals turn their backs on Saracens | The Breakdown

Related: Saracens shake off salary cap taunts as Ben Earl punishes Gloucester

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