Rampant Bulls chase Saracens red and black

12/07/2024 05:44 AM

It only needs a hint of red for the Vodacom Bulls to go on the charge and there is more than a hint of red in the colour-coding of England's most successful Investec Champions Cup team Saracens.

The three-times champions host the  Bulls in the opening round of the Champions Cup, and it is a match that could determine who gets to host a quarter-final.

The two teams have only met once, last season at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, and the Bulls were comfortable winners.

Some would suggest the Bulls have improved since that match and Saracens, without the club talisman Owen Farrell, are not as potent.

But that would be discounting home ground advantage and Saracens early Premiership form.

There is little on-field history between Saracens and South African teams but there is a massive South African connection to Saracens, who at one stage a decade ago were dubbed 'Saffacens' because of the heavy investment from South African billionaire Johann Rupert and the arrival of so many South African players.

You can pick a starting XV of South Africans who have worn the Saracens jersey, with 1995 World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar the architect of the alignment between South Africa and Saracens.

Pienaar and fellow 1995 World Cup winner Gavin Johnson arrived first and over the years many have followed, some for a season and some for a lifetime.

Springbok hooker Schalk Brits arrived at Saracens with 10 Springbok Test caps. He would eventually a decade later add five to that number in 2019 and be part of a winning World Cup campaign, but in between he was all Saracens in playing 216 matches and winning everything domestically and in Europe.

Neil de Kock, another Springbok with 10 caps, also immediately made Saracens his home and the scrumhalf, originally from Cape Town's northern suburbs, would finish his career among the most celebrated Saracens club players with 250 appearances.

Then there is midfielder Brad Barritt, who played for the SA U20s, the Sharks and Emerging Springboks before settling at Saracens. He would play for the England Saxons, 26 times for England and tour with the British & Irish Lions. In between he would play 261 matches for Saracens.

Prop Matt Stevens and lock Mauritz Botha were two more South African-born players who would represent England.

The 2007 World Cup-winning hooker and captain John Smit spent his last two seasons at Saracens, as did flanker Schalk Burger, the 2004 World Player of the Year.

South African Ernst Joubert was never a Springbok but he played his best rugby at Saracens. The No 8 would finish with 160 appearances.

Springbok tighthead prop Cobus Visagie was a long-term fixture at Saracens, lock Alistair Hargreaves captained the club before concussion forced an early retirement and another Bok prop Deon Carstens packed down for the club.

There were fleeting cameos from Springboks Jannie de Beer, Derick Hougaard, Brent Russell, Wikus van Heerden and a more prominent stint more recently from tighthead prop Vincent Koch. The dynamic Stormers utlility back Damian Willemse even spent a month at Saracens on loan.

Saracens, a bit like the Toulon team that featured several South Africans, became an adopted South African team in the Champions Cup and many of those South African players got to win the biggest global club rugby knockout prize.

When Toulon beat Saracens in the 2014 Champions Cup final in Cardiff, the match featured 12 South African players and Namibia's iconic flanker Jacques Burger, who ended his Saracens career with 100 caps.

Brendan Venter, a former Springbok centre and Springbok assistant coach, also enjoyed several seasons as Director of Rugby at Saracens and the former South Africa Rugby Union CEO Edward Griffiths was the mainstay CEO at Saracens for a long time.

Now it is a bit different and former Bulls scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl is the lone South African. Rupert, in 2018, sold his 50% investment and Venter, as coach, has long since departed. So, too, Griffiths as CEO.

For Van Zyl it will be a special match-up, playing against his old mates, but there will be little cheer for Saracens from South African supporters because they no longer carry the romance of being the 'Saffacens'.

Photo: EPCR/Supplied

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