The rehabilitation is complete. Saracens, for so long the champion club of England, even for a good while of Europe, reclaim their familiar crown. Expelled from the Premiership in disgrace three years ago, found guilty of breaches of the salary cap, Saracens returned to the final in their first season back, but the last step to triumph proved one too far on that occasion. Here they rode multiple disruptions to take it in some style.
Whether Saracens are a byword for all that is unholy or convenient scapegoats for a salary cap process that had failed on multiple occasions in the preceding 20 years or so will depend on one’s allegiance and/or opinion of the state of English rugby, an enterprise that certainly seems to be creaking at the seams. Whether within the cap or not, salaries in recent times have patently been too high, as the scourge of Covid and its fallout has been mercilessly exposing.
