Preview – Saracens 2021/22
“Time will tell if we can challenge this season. We’re happy with the squad we’ve got for next season, the senior internationals stayed at the club, the loan players have had really successful years away from the club and they’ve come back better players than they were.”
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Season Expectation: 3rd
Key Signings: Marco Riccioni, Ivan Van Zyl
Saracens are the toughest team to evaluate this season. They have retained a star-studded squad, albeit not quite as deep, welcomed the return of young stars from excellent loan spells and they have added some intriguing new players. Only a fool would count out the five time Premiership Champions. Yet there is a veil of uncertainty, those that did stay at Sarries in the Championship last year were slightly out of form in their International commitments and there must be some level of sharpness and gloss to their operations that has been lost, at least temporarily, from a year out of the top flight. Expect Sarries to be less consistent than in the past, encountering the odd-hiccup especially at the beginning of the season, but to be back to their relentless best come the end of the season. The North London Club will be zoned in on adding another title to its Five Premierships as its European ambitions are limited to the Challenge Cup this year.
Saracens’ signings were very much the retention of players through loans last year. The likes of Max Malins (Bristol), Ben Earl (Bristol), Nick Isiekwe (Northampton Saints) and Alex Lozowski (Montpellier) all come back as better players and will provide the accuracy that Saracens are renowned for. Mark McCall acknowledged the positive loan spells claiming that: ‘’the loan players have had a really successful year away from the club and they've come back better players than they were.'' The Championship also served as a great opportunity for Sarries to blood their youth with the likes of Joel Kpoku, Manu Vunipola, Rotimi Segun and Elliot Obatiyinbo gaining invaluable game time and are likely to play significant roles this season. McCall noting that ‘’some young lads have had more time than they would have had.’’ The addition of Italian international Marco Riccioni smells like an underrated signing of the season candidate with the young Italian already looking like a potential long-term project for the Sarries front-row. Scrum-Half is the only star-less position at Saracens but the role is very much to provide clean service to the star-studded side and Ivan Van Zyl has proved service-full in his Bulls career, whilst Aled Davies may well provide some bench spark and Ruben De Haas (USA) will be injury cover but with some career upside. The news that Joe Simpson has arrived for one-month to cover for Ivan Van Zyl’s two week suspension shows that they do have little less depth than they would like at this position.
Saracens are largely expected to hit the ground running from day one and pick up from where they have left off. Yet this is going to be a tough season for McCall’s men as they will be missing their Lions and international players for a large chunk of the season. However, make no mistake Saracens may struggle at times, but when the points are tallied at the end of the season they will be among those that go through to the knockout stages and that is where they thrive. Their youngsters are quality and even their second-string side looks menacing. With the focus on the domestic season, expect Sarries to be in the semi-finals at least, but with the other teams stepping it up a notch and their year in exile, they may just fall short of a 6th Premiership title.