Sharks/Saracens game adds momentum to growth of unique rugby partnership

The Saracens visit to Durban to play a Hollywoodbets Sharks Invitational team on Friday afternoon (kick-off 4pm) amounts to far more than just an opportunity for both clubs to get in a pre-season warmup game before they start their respective competitive seasons.

Sharks CEO Shaun Bryans and his Saracens counterpart Charlie Beall sat down with supersport.com at the Zimbali Lakes Country Club at the start of a golf day featuring players and management members of the two teams and we discovered that the week the English club have spent in KZN culminating with Friday’s game is a collaboration that has been long in the making.

“There has always been a South African interest in Saracens, through Johan Rupert and through Francois Pienaar playing there, with Francois having a very close relationship with Dominic Silvester, who is the the main investor behind Saracens,” said Bryans.

“Dominic is also a very good friend of Marco Massotti, who is the main investor behind the Sharks. So at an ownership level there has been a long-standing friendship and I think the collaboration and partnership between the clubs really stems from that. We have found that it might make sense to work together in certain areas.

“Friday’s will be the first game between us, but this has been a long time in the making. It just proved difficult to find a window. For instance this weekend the game between the two clubs is on the same day as we play the Pumas in a Currie Cup game (7pm kick-off also at Hollywoodbets Kings Park) while our under-21 team will be in Bloemfontein in the same weekend.

“We hope that this will be the first of many such occasions and hopefully it can become an annual event. For a couple of years we have been trying to find ways to do things together and “stronger together” is I think the sort of mantra,” he added.

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO STRENGTHEN CLUB RUGBY

Beall, who spent his early years in South Africa and was schooled at Hilton, has only just come into the CEO role at Saracens so is new to the relationship that has been forming between the clubs, but he sees a unique opportunity in a club arena that is becoming increasingly challenging.

“A big part of what makes me excited about it is just the potential for club rugby, which I think needs a boost but I think is more than capable of stepping up into the higher tier of both commercial success and on-field success,” said Beall, who came to his role after a successful career working in various different roles in other professional sports.

“But for rugby at this level to reach its potential clubs need to stick together, they need to learn from one another and have some sort of synergy where it is possible. We are obviously competing on the field but we and the Sharks are not competing from the same fans (because we play in different primary competitions, the URC and the Gallagher Premiership), so it makes sense for us to understand and learn from each other.”

Beall believes an ideal outcome will be for fans of the Sharks to become fans of Saracens in the Premiership and for Saracens fans to lean towards the Sharks in the URC.

“People are fluid. I grew up in South Africa, and I support SA in cricket, but I also support England and then have a tough time deciding which team to support on those occasions that they play against each other,” he said.

“But when they are not playing against each other I can support both.”

CHAMPIONS CUP DRAW THREW A SPANNER IN THE WORKS

As it turns out, and this became a reality after the Saracens’ plans for a week of team building and strength and conditioning training in KZN was finalised, the Sharks and Saracens will be playing each other again soon, and clashing in a much more serious way than this week’s friendly.

“We do compete with each other, and not just theoretically,” said Bryans. “We compete in the Investec Champions Cup, and it just so happens that we have been drawn to play Saracens in December. But we don’t compete with Saracens in our primary competition, the URC versus the Premiership.”

The draw pitting the two teams together in the same Champions Cup pool did throw a bit of a curve ball at the plans for this week.

“It is interesting because this camp was conceived long before the fixtures and groups came out for the Champions Cup and initially we had a lot of joint training sessions and coach interactions planned.

"Part of the idea is a sharing of ideas. But now we can’t do that to the same extent (for obvious reasons),” said the Sharks CEO.

For Saracens then the week in South Africa has worked out perfectly in that it has given those players who will be involved in the Champions Cup game a taste of the environment and the conditions they will be competing in come early December.

“Saracens did play the Bulls in the Championship a few years ago but we have a young group here so there won’t have been too many players who were part of that experience,” said Beall.

“Obviously our December visit will be a lot different to how this is. It is going to be more business oriented because at the moment we have our hair down and are having fun, and it is relaxed. But it will be a great experience having spent time here.

"Without going into the rugby cliches it is going to be one of those situations where it will be a ding-dong on the field but we will appreciate the camaraderie afterwards.”

OWNERSHIP LINKS TOO MINOR TO BE PROBLEMATIC

There is a minor link in the ownership of the two clubs, in the sense that the Saracens owner Silvester is a minority investor in Massotti’s MVM consortium that runs the Sharks, and in turn Massotti is a minor shareholder in the ownership of Saracens.

However the respective parties have done their due diligence and were upfront with their governing bodies, SA Rugby and the RFU, and say that the potential for what has happened in soccer, where Crystal Palace were dropped from the Europa League because they would have been competing against a club that had the same ownership links, has been dealt with and averted.

“Because we compete in the same competition we approached SA Rugby and the RFU for clearance, and it was given as in both cases it is such a small and arbitrary shareholding,” says Bryans.

“The regulators did ask questions. But Dominic is not on the Sharks board, and Marco is not on the Saracens board. The shareholding is at a lower level (than in the Crystal Palace instance).”

FARRELL PLAYING INVALUABLE ROLE WITH THE YOUNGSTERS

Not all the top Saracens players are in South Africa for this trip, with British and Irish Lions and England captain Maro Itoje taking a well earned rest, along with Jamie George and Ben Earls, but veteran former England captain Owen Farrell is, as with fellow recent Lion Elliot Daly.

“I am not sure if Owen will be playing in the game against the Sharks but he is of course back with us after his year in France and the coaches have spoken highly about his input,” said Beall.

“He is a consummate professional, a player who gives his all for whichever jersey he wears, and although he still has a lot of rugby left in him, he has in a way been a coach throughout his career. He has a massive impact on the young players we have here with us.”

Beall believes that the week in KZN has been the perfect way to prepare Saracens for the new season.

“The players have been having a fantastic time. We were fortunate to spend a couple of days up at the Phinda Reserve, and for some of our players, who are drawn from an international talent base, meaning we have players from Samoa and Fiji with us, this was their first experience of the African bush.

“Just the nature of the experience has been really good. Obviously at this time of the buildup to the new season we are still busy with a lot of strength and conditioning work, but a lot of it has also been about team building and building cohesion.

"Even if you have a solid squad there are always new people and youngsters coming in. Those dynamics need to be reset on a season by season basis and doing that in such a friendly and welcoming environment will pay dividends.”

A BIG COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITY

Beall believes though that while collaboration between the clubs on the level of rugby IP is important, there is also a commercial opportunity that can’t be passed up and needs exploring.

“I come from a wider sports industry background and one of the sticks that rugby gets beaten with is its lack of scale. For some brands the audience is incredibly valuable but it will attract some professional and financial services brands because it is slightly skewed to a wealthier audience, but for others you don’t have the scale, you don’t have the stick to access a highly passionate youth audience.

“That might be slightly different in South Africa. If we can put together a package that is multi competition and multi territory involving legends and current players across both rugby eco systems and united around a shared set of values, with the story telling with some of the content folk that are shared by the two clubs, that is a quite compelling sponsorship offering that may put us ahead of the game. That is the kind of option I see this collaboration gives us.”

CHANCE FOR SHARKS TO BREAK THROUGH IN EUROPE

Bryans sees the potential for what Beall is talking about to allow the Sharks to make a much needed and sought after breakthrough in the foreign market.

“Given we play most of our rugby in Europe, we see the European market as an interesting commercial opportunity and it has been difficult for us to figure out how to capitalise on that.

"Having a commercial collaboration with Saracens might be just the thing because we haven’t been successful so far in attracting European based commercial partners.”

*The Sharks Invitation team's game against Saracens will be live-streamed on the Supersport Youtube channel from 4pm on Friday.