Saracens will fight to keep Owen Farrell in north London as French giants Racing 92 grow increasingly confident of signing the England talisman.
Saracens boss Mark McCall admitted any team in the world would want Farrell in their ranks, but refused to discuss the 32-year-old's situation any further.
Saracens will keep doing all they can behind the scenes to convince Farrell to stay put at StoneX Stadium though, with the 112-cap playmaker still as influential as ever for the reigning Premiership champions.
Asked if Saracens still want Farrell to stay on hand as long as possible, McCall replied: “Well, I think having Owen Farrell in your team is what everybody would want.”
Racing 92 believe they can persuade Farrell to end his 15-year stint with Saracens and move across The Channel this summer.
Farrell stepped down from England duty after the World Cup, relinquishing the Red Rose captaincy to miss the Six Nations.
The combative fly-half has given no assurance about when he will return to the Test fold, and should he move to France this summer he will be off limits for selection.
England are clinging more than ever to their rule of refusing to select overseas-based players, so Farrell will be unavailable if he moves to Racing.
Saracens rugby director McCall insisted England have no choice but to enforce that rule, admitting that removing it would only lead to an even bigger exodus from the Premiership.
“At the moment there are two different salary caps in the two competitions, aren’t there?” said McCall.
“And it’s obvious what will happen if that rule goes away. So I think it’s a very simple argument really.”
Asked directly for his take on Farrell’s situation, McCall replied only: “I understand you need to ask me the question but I also know you know I can’t answer it.
“Our club does not deal in speculation and we won’t be talking about this.”
Saracens slipped to their fifth defeat of the league season with a 19-10 loss at Leicester Tigers. The men in black have now lost three of their last four league matches, but still sit sixth in the most compacted Premiership table yet.
Despite their frustrating recent run, McCall believes they can still drive back towards yet another run to the play-offs.
“We don’t want to be losing matches, obviously, and we want to be playing better than we are,” said McCall.
“We haven’t quite had the season that we want, that’s obvious too, but it’s a weird season, because there’s a seven-week break coming up. Teams that have got momentum now have got to try to find a way to keep up that momentum during the seven-week break.
“Someone’s going to have six games in that little sprint to the line, and one or two teams are going to get momentum during that period. Someone can go from seventh to first or second very quickly.
“That makes it exciting this year. I think if we can get a bit healthier, get all our players back, we can be one of those teams.”
