58 Wednesday June 8 2022 | the timesSportRugby union
5Premiership Rugby is considering a
semi-final double header as part of its
strategy to stage more big events during
the season.
Harlequins have made a tradition of
playing their Christmas Big Game at
Twickenham and this year added a
second date in May, attracting a total of
120,000 fans to the two games.
Saracens drew 40,000 fans to the
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for their
league game against Bristol Bears and
Premiership Rugby (PRL) is working
on plans for the season to be studded
with more crowd-pulling events.
The French Top 14 semi-finals will be
staged on the same day in Nice this year,
and Simon Massie-Taylor, the PRL
chief executive, said a similar idea was
being discussed for the Premiership.Farrell. “I’ve spoken about Owen
before. Just watch The Last Dance.
Watch Michael Jordan approaching
that last play-off game [in 1998].
“That’s where you’ll find Owen. He’s
driving the team, coaching the team, he’s
leading by example, he’s talking unbe-
lievably well. It’s the whole package.”
George also noted the impact of Max
Malins, the England back, who top-
scored during the regular season with
16 tries in 13 matches.
“He’s been ridiculous,” George said.
“Magic Max. He’s come back from Bris-
tol [where he was on loan last season]
and developed his game massively. He
plays wing, full back, can fit in at No 10,
and he’s a special player and someone
we hold in massive regard.”Fired-up Farrell channelling
Jordan’s Last Dance intensity
Will Kelleher
Deputy Rugby CorrespondentLeague ponders semis double header
“We are looking at what our big-
game strategy should be. We have some
marquee moments already and we are
trying to work out how we can punctu-
ate the season more with big games
and the obvious question is whether
the semis becomes that big-game
moment,” Massie-Taylor told The Ruck,
the rugby podcast from The Times and
Sunday Times.
“Building up this Nice semi-final
[day], it looks incredible. They recently
held them in Marseille, which was the
home of the European finals a few
weeks ago, and those types of destina-
tions are brilliant for hosting big events.
“One of the questions we will try and
answer over the next few months is
how we can grow our big games and
whether the semi-finals is one of them.”
The league system rewards the teams
who finish first and second in the regu-lar season with a home semi-final
against fourth and third place respec-
tively. To hold a semi-finals double-
header would remove the incentive for
finishing in the top two.
According to the rugby statistician
Russ Petty, 83 per cent of Premiership
semi-finals have been won by the home
team. The figures are similar in France
and in the United Rugby Championship.
This year’s semi-finals have thrown
up two derbies. Saracens will host Har-
lequins at 1.30pm on Saturday, with
Leicester Tigers, who topped the table,
against Northampton Saints at 4.30pm.
“We don’t employ a script writer but
if we did they would get pretty close to
what we have got here with these two
semi-finals,” said Massie-Taylor. “We
have two derbies and three teams who
weren’t in the semi-finals last year.
They are all massive clubs.”Alex Lowe Rugby CorrespondentOwen Farrell is behaving like Michael
Jordan in the days leading up to a big
final, according to his team-mate Jamie
George.
Saracens face Harlequins at home on
Saturday, returning to the Gallagher
Premiership play-off semi-finals at the
first time of asking after their relegation
in 2020 for salary cap offences.
George, the 31-year-old hooker,
compared Farrell to Jordan, whose
approach to winning the league for the
Chicago Bulls in his final season with
the team in 1998 was portrayed in the
popular Netflix series The Last Dance.
“He’s everything,” George said ofS
aracens will be a quieter and
duller place without Richard
Barrington, the loose-head
prop with bleached blond hair
and a fashion sense that is
almost as loud as his voice. After nine
years in north London, Barrington is
off to Agen in the summer. “All good
things must come to an end,” he says.
It would be easy to underplay
Barrington’s importance to Saracens,
even though he has made 220
appearances for the club since he
joined from Jersey in 2013. In cycling
parlance he has been a domestique,
working for the benefit of his team
without ever being the superstar; the
unsung hero in a squad packed with
world-class players.
Barrington has certainly had his
moments in the spotlight, not least in
the 2019 Heineken Champions Cup
final when he came on early for Mako
Vunipola, packed down opposite
Tadhg Furlong and helped Saracens
win their third European title.
Whenever he has been called upon,
he has delivered and that day in
Newcastle remains one of his
favourite memories — but it is away
from the bright lights of game day
that Barrington has earned his
reputation as the ultimate club man.
“Baz embodies everything that is
good about Saracens, and perhaps
about the game itself. More than his
rugby, which has been of the highest
quality at some of the club’s biggest
moments, Baz is a character,” Mark
McCall, the Saracens director of
rugby, said.
“His infectious personality and love
for people has been central to the
ethos of the club. He is an original.
Our club, and the game, is better for
having people like him.”
Barrington has been at the heart of
Saracens’ changing-room celebrations,
leading the singing in the middle of a
circle whether he has played or not.
He has helped new arrivalsunderstand the environment they are
joining; he has been the life and soul
of the place.
“I make sure I am available to go to
the pub whenever anyone has a
problem and to be there for people,”
he said. “Any new arrivals, I will take
them to the pub for a couple of pints
so I can tell them what Saracens is all
about and I say, ‘Strap yourselves in
because it is going to be a hell of a
ride.’
“Saracens is a great environmentSaturday’s semi-finals
Saracens v Harlequins
1.30pm, StoneX StadiumLeicester v Northampton
4.30pm, Welford RoadSaracens prop with a simple motto:
‘I’m always available to go to the pub’
achievements have been unfairly
maligned by the scandal and maintain
those titles were earned and not
bought — and that has underpinned
their title quest this season.
Saracens play Harlequins at StoneX
Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with
the winners meeting either Leicester
Tigers or Northampton Saints at
Twickenham.
“I won’t lie, if we win this title it will
be different. It is going to be a bit
nicer. It wasn’t all about the salary
cap. It was all about the team spirit
and all about what Saracens was
about and nothing to do with the
other stuff. We have a point to prove
there,” Barrington said.
“Part of the DNA when I joined
Saracens was to work hard for your
friends and that was here before I
joined and it will be there after I leave.”
If Barrington’s favourite on-field
moment was the 2019 Champions Cup
final, his favourite off-field experience
was a team trip to the Lollapaloozamusic festival in Chicago. “It was
fancy dress and I was wearing a
denim sleeveless jacket and covered
in American flags. Eminem was
playing, Calvin Harris and Rudimental
too. “Listening to good music,
drinking together with close mates,
talking shit and getting extremely
drunk,” he said. “It was just a great
time.”
Barrington is starting to learn
French and he may wait a few weeks
before taking charge of the changing-
room celebrations in Agen. But he
will attack the challenge of ProD2
with the same mantra that has been
so valuable to Saracens.
“There is a goal to get Agen back
into the Top 14 and I hope to bring
some of the experience I gained in
the Championship with Saracens to
help them do that,” he said.
“I need to get down there, learn the
language and then get down the pub.
Always say ‘yes’. It is going to be fun.”Barrington is usually the player to lead the celebrations at Saracens, including the sing-song after the 2019 Premiership finalfor allowing players to just be
themselves and the boys have bought
into what I wanted to bring. It has
helped the team out as much as it has
helped me out, I think.”
Always be available to go down the
pub sounds like a good motto for life.
“Always say ‘yes’,” he says, laughing.
“ ‘No’ is the downfall of everything.”
It has indeed been one hell of a ride
for Barrington, who got his
opportunity at Saracens after a trial
game against Worcester Warriors. “Ithink my nan could have got picked
up that day because I was
scrummaging with John Smit and
Matt Stevens,” he said.
Barrington has played in all four of
the club’s Gallagher Premiership final
triumphs and won three European
titles. Those successes were tainted in
the eyes of many outside of Saracens
by the salary cap scandal, which led
to the club being relegated, but not to
those involved.
Saracens players believe theirMATTHEW IMPEY/SHUTTERSTOCK
Richard Barrington, theultimate club man, tells
Alex Lowe about his key
role in keeping up
team morale