Wave Goodbye...

Following on from my last piece about new arrivals, no fewer than 17 players have left Sarries since the beginning of 2024/25 with 10 departures at the end of the season.  The most notable departure was of course that of Alex Goode, who has ended his playing career at the age of 37; Darraghgirl has recently posted a lovely tribute to Alex so I won’t go into too much detail except to add my heartfelt thanks to the man known to us all as Goodey for his commitment to the Sarries cause over the past two decades, for his drive, professionalism, and most of all for the sheer excitement of watching him play. We truly will never see his like again.

Everyone was I’m sure delighted to see that a resurrected Worcester Warriors have been admitted to the Championship for 2025/26 having resolved their financial issues to the satisfaction of the authorities; I’ll confess now to a soft spot for Warriors as I spent my early years in that area, and I’m pleased that Sarries supporters will have a bit of an interest in Warriors’ fortunes next season as two of our squad, prop Fraser Balmain and fly-half Tiff Eden, have joined Warriors.

Fraser, who had only arrived from Gloucester in 2024, started 8 games for Sarries across all competitions; there’s no doubt that he’ll prove a formidable opponent next season.

Tiff, who is in fact returning to his first club after 8 years away, had signed up as short-term injury cover early in the season but remained with us until the end of the season and in his 6 appearances – including 2 from the bench in the Champions Cup – proved an experienced and classy operator; he’ll also do really well with Warriors.  

Sam Crean, who after 6 years at StoneX – also spending a number of spells with Ampthill – has moved onto an exciting opportunity with Ulster.

Sam made 36 appearances in the black and red and during his time with us also earned 2 England Under 20 caps; it’s always sad to see one of our own leave, but at still only 25 his best years lie ahead of him and we wish him every success in Belfast where he featured on the bench twice in March prior to returning to StoneX for one last game against Falcons.   

Another home-grown talent to move on is 24 year old Josh Hallett, who made 24 appearances for Sarries and had been earmarked as a future star, also spending time with Ampthill and Old Albanians and earning age-group England honours; wherever you go, Josh, they’ll be getting s very good young player!

 Ollie Hoskins, 32 and who arrived at Sarries in 2023 following the collapse of London Irish, was an experienced ad very able operator good enough to have capped by the Wallabies in 2021, and even though he only made 16 appearances – starting in 4 games – for Sarries it felt like he’d been there longer and had played more; having decided to retire from the game, Ollie was recently granted a lovely farewell to rugby when Sarries agreed a one-game loan back to his first club Western Force to enable him to play against the British & Irish Lions.

Liam Williams, a Sarries legend with legs you could run a pig through as the old saying goes, left Sarries for a second time having returning to StoneX on a short-term contract late in 2024 after coming back to the UK from Japan for family reasons; needless to say we were all thrilled to see him back and his second spell with us promised much with his try-scoring second debut in Paris.

Sadly, Liam sustained a season-ending knee injury in January while playing for Wales against France, his last game for Sarries having been that frustrating defeat at Sandy Park; at the time of writing Liam has not yet found  a new club but wherever he goes, he’ll always a Sarrie.

Other end of season departures – according to all.rugby – include Finn Bloomer (prop), James Talamain (hooker) who has joined Dragons, and Declan Murphy – I’m no fsmiliar with any of these players; can anyone enlighten me?

  A number of players left the club during the course of the season, including a few familiar names:

Kapeli Pifeleti, the last Vunipola standing who joined  Aix; Izaiha Moore-Aiono joined Castres; Carwyn Tuipulotu joined Pau; Callum Braley moved on to Cardiff; Tim Swiel returned to Chicago Hounds; Max Clark moved to Newcastle Falcons; Tom Parton, a perhaps surprising departure, moved to Wild Knights in Japan.

To those who have retired from playing – thank you, and we wish you every success in your life's next chapter.

To those who have moved on, we wish you the very best of luck at your next club.