I wonder if all Saracens players on enhanced remuneration packages were asked to sign confidentiality clauses? We do not seem to have heard from any past or current players.

Perhaps JJ or other ex players might like to say why they left first team rugby for bench or squad roles at Saracens?

Must be someone prepared to comment?

Where is JJ now?

Currently playing in France for Brive, I think...

Yes, a regular for the last couple of years.

This is part of the lesser talked about affect that sarries salary shenanigans has had. JJ was a nailed on starter for us in the 2011/12 season, but he left us to become 2nd/3rd choice at  sarries because of the better financial package. We weren't able to keep him. Since that move, he's struggled to find a solid place in a side until he moved to Brive.

We lost out on a key player & struggled to get stability at TH for a season or two (Sinkler's breakthrough was really the 2013/14 season). JJ lost out in terms of his career too, sitting on the bench mostly, then bouncing from club to club in the Premiership. Sarries had a useful fallback of a player who'd just won a Premiership title who could sit on the bench behind their existing props & play the odd game or two. Ad finally the salary expectations of players is increased because they could see that sarries were willing to pay that much for a player who wasn't going to play a major part in their campaign, so other clubs "must be willing to spend at least that much" to players who are getting more regular First Team gametime.

This is part of the lesser talked about affect that sarries salary shenanigans has had. JJ was a nailed on starter for us in the 2011/12 season, but he left us to become 2nd/3rd choice at  sarries because of the better financial package. We weren't able to keep him. Since that move, he's struggled to find a solid place in a side until he moved to Brive.

We lost out on a key player & struggled to get stability at TH for a season or two (Sinkler's breakthrough was really the 2013/14 season). JJ lost out in terms of his career too, sitting on the bench mostly, then bouncing from club to club in the Premiership. Sarries had a useful fallback of a player who'd just won a Premiership title who could sit on the bench behind their existing props & play the odd game or two. Ad finally the salary expectations of players is increased because they could see that sarries were willing to pay that much for a player who wasn't going to play a major part in their campaign, so other clubs "must be willing to spend at least that much" to players who are getting more regular First Team gametime.

Not sure that is true.  JJ advised Quins he was off, he was expecting big offers from France.  That never happened. In the meantime, we signed PDJ to replace him. As a result  JJ then joined Sarries for basically what he was on at Quins

I'm laughing. In what world is PDJ not a hilarious signing? If you can't laugh about it...

It would be hilarious if it hadn't been us that signed him!

I agree. We have made some poor signings but that was awful.

This is an old article from the Rugby Paper (2014) but it is very relevant to the current situation and to this thread



The most interesting part of the article is towards the end when JJ talks about his pie-making venture and says ... “Saracens helped me set it up” ... is this another of Nigel Wray’s “co-investments” ?