Official Saracens Amateur Web Site

The introduction of professionalism into Rugby Union in the mid 90's created considerable turmoil and uncertainty throughout the game. Those clubs directly involved at the top end of the newly professional game had many new challenges to face. In particular the extent to which hitherto amateur clubs could meet the demands of the professional era and continue to sustain relations with an ongoing amateur capability was far from clear.

Now, nearly ten years on, the situation is much clearer. The truly professional game is confined to the Zurich Premiership clubs plus a few well-funded National League One clubs. We are proud that Saracens is a well established member of this elite group. Each of these professional setups run just one playing squad which supports the main League programme plus a second team competition running post Xmas with RFU Academy links to help develop promising youngsters.

The position of amateur clubs, and those parts of clubs remaining in existence after professionalism like us at Saracens Amateur RFC, is now much clearer. The rest of the game is essentially amateur at the playing level and whilst commercial sponsorship is encouraged to help meet club running costs players are once again paying to play - rather than the reverse!

Our Vision

Here at Saracens we now have a clear vision of where we would like to take the Amateur Club. Our women's teams continue to be amongst the top teams in the country and their success contributes to the overall success of the Saracens' brand. We will continue to support our women's teams fully. Our Youth section attracts youngsters - and coaches - from a wide area and both the mini and junior sections have produced consistently high performances for many years. The minis and juniors now provide the bedrock for our Club and we must continue to provide an attractive rugby proposition for the youngsters to ensure this pipeline of talent continues to develop. We must also recognise that many of these youngsters do want to continue to be a part of Saracens - even if work or study takes them away from the area for a period once they leave school. The desire to be part of the Saracens family and wear the famous crescent and star each weekend is a desire that we wish to see fulfilled.

Last year we established a new Colts XV which had a very successful season. We shall continue to run the Colts now as a means to providing an immediate source of quality rugby for the players emerging from the under 17's. We are not restricted in selection of fixtures at this level so we will be looking to maintain a strong fixture list that will provide meaningful challenges each week.

The Senior Men's rugby will centre on the National Leagues. The RFU insist that any new entrant joining the leagues does so at the bottom so it will no doubt take us some time (several years) to establish our correct level. Our objective is to reach the top of the regional leagues in the next 5-7 years and then we will reappraise our future aspirations depending on playing resources, financial demands, facilities etc. Long term a position in National League 2 would seem achievable and this would provide an excellent complement to what we hope will be a consistently successful professional Saracens side over the coming years.

Once a Saracen .

In addition to players moving upwards from other Saracens' teams we want to encourage new players to join us. Saracens in the past was an attractive club to many young people arriving in the London area to work and we hope to restore our profile in senior amateur rugby and recruit new players to the club as well. Certainly friends and relatives of former Saracens will be very welcome new members and we shall be targeting former players to help in our recruiting.

Saracens teams were always noted for their intensity on the pitch but we also had a proud reputation for being one of the friendliest clubs in London and providing some of the best parties! Lifetime friendships have been forged in the past through belonging to Saracens. It is our goal to ensure this reputation for friendship and camaraderie continues and to see new generations of long term Saracens emerge to sustain these hard-earned traditions.

e-mail: admin@saracensrfc.co.uk