SARACENS SEASON PREVIEW 2025/6

With the Prem Rugby cup starting this week it seems like the time to get the season preview out. This is potentially a very exciting season coming up for us. There a lot of unknowns but plenty of things to be really positive about. The more I look at the options we have the more excited I get.  

New signings:

Owen Farrell - a bit of an unknown this one… Obviously he can play 12 as seen for the Lions but if I’m honest I only really see him as a 10 for us unless we’re desperate, especially in the big matches. Will it upset the new squad dynamic? There certainly are questions raised by his return, discussed further below.

Max Malins - needs to get back to fitness and an Achilles injury is a bugger to get over but he never really relied on speed. I think he’s key to rebuilding the backline and should be a senior creative voice. IMO has to play 15 even if he can do a job on the wing.

Tietie Tuimauga - I don’t know much about him but he’s enormous (130kg, so Carré weight). If we lost some beef in the pack with Mako and Billy leaving he certainly adds to that. Hopefully another Theo M style signing in impact. He can play both sides of the scrum too.

Marcus Street - another welcome addition at Tighthead. If I’m honest not seen much of him at Exeter apart from during a period when their scrum wasn’t great but still a youngster in prop terms at 26. Hopefully between him and Tietie with won’t need to rely on an injury prone Riccioni playing 70 mins all the time.

Vilikesa Nairau - was amusingly listed as 135kg and 156cm on the Cov website which would make him a very interesting shape but is almost certainly wrong on the height. A 22 year old prop that can also play either side and big ball carrier but don’t expect to see him much apart from in the cup.

Dai Flanagan - a new voice in the coaching department and considering the frustrations last season in attack, a welcome one. Considering the attacking talent across the squad I would hope Dai was picked from a large number of quality candidates who would be licking their lips at the options we have. A quote from Squidge on him “I think you can kinda sum it up by the fact both teams he's been at as a coach got noticeably worse right after he left. A fantastic, vastly underrated coach who was handed an incredibly rough deal at the Dragons and with hindsight we can see he was frankly doing a very reasonable job with what he had. He was probably promoted to head coach too early in his career, but should do a brilliant job as an assistant.”

Tactics:

 last season our defence was suicidal at times, it looked like we were mimicking the England “hammer” (remember that?) or our old Wolfpack rush but our edge defence was badly exposed time and again. Is this a work in progress or do we change it up? Do the new laws simply negate an aggressive rush defence? It seems that way to me. It’s also becoming harder to hold on to a lead and play without the ball now, seen with us at Saints, Lions 2nd test, SA v Aus, Aus v Argentina and I’m sure other matches if I think about it hard enough.

 I am looking forward to the new attack coach and while defence is critical we have an unbelievable array of attacking talent at our disposal and that needs to be unleashed. I am not a raving anti-kicking fan, frankly if we won the league by box kicking then I would love it but I don’t think we have the tools to play that way anymore. So our kick/pass ratio felt off last season, we fell too far towards the kicking end of the spectrum. The last time we won the title should be the blueprint for style of play or if we’re looking elsewhere then the way Argentina play with their many backrow and backs talents could be inspiration.

 Last season we had a tendency to fall off in the second half dramatically, the new additions and youngsters coming through make me hope that the bench will be a strength this season. We could easily see Jamie, Faz and Daly coming on at 60 to see our matches. I’d also like to see more 5-3 splits though, especially if poor Roti is playing, as we came unstuck a couple of times with 6-2.

Squad:

Overall the squad looks very good. We can play internationals in pretty much every position, a lot with cover. There is also lots of exciting young talent coming through as seen in the friendly v Sharks. Any talk of rebuilding is out of the window with Faz’s return IMO. This is a squad that should be competing at the top of the league. Below is not a full depth chart but gives a good idea of the options we have at full strength.

 1. Carré/Mawi/Brantingham

2.. George/Dan 

3. Riccioni/Street/Tietie 

4. Itoje/Theo M

5. Isiekwe/Tizard/Sodeke 

6. JMG/AOC/Eke 

7. Earl/Knight

8. Willis/Michelow

9. IVZ/Bracken 

10. Faz/Burke/Johnson 

11. Segun/Hall 

12. Tompkins/Hartley 

13. Cinti/Loz/Spink 

14. Elliott/Jackson/Backen 

15. Malins/Daly 

Some thoughts on individual players. Dan needs more game time, he was the only one dropped from the England contracts which will hurt. His form last season fell off a cliff after being with England and not playing, then it picked up after a few matches e.g. v Toulon. It would be great to see Earl bring his international form to the club again. Like Dan he comes back from England not at 100%, I think partly because his work load with England has been extreme, with Willis getting an England contract that workload should be reduced. The England back row is as competitive as any position in the world right now and after a quiet Lions tour Earl should be raring to go to remind every one of how good he is.

An ongoing point from last season is Tizard v Isiekwe, one needs to make the 5 shirt their own. Tizard was going that way last season but the red card seemed to really take the wind from his sails, understandably with the length of time it took to resolve. Isiekwe has all the talent in the world but obviously has had his health issues, if he could add a bit of a nasty streak to his play he would be a complete no.5. Young Sodeke could have something to say about it too. AOC will hopefully continue working his way back, absolutely love him and he deserves as much patience as is needed.

A big question is where and when does Faz play? He can play 12 but should he? Is he competing to play in every match or select big games? Gun to my head, I’d have Faz at 10 every time for the biggest matches. Hopefully he is able to kick again, otherwise that is still a problem. Obviously that then poses the question where Burke and Johnson fit in. If we didn’t have Malins returning I could see Burke converting to 15 a la Goode. I don’t have the answer there but I suspect we could see one of them leave, which is brutal. Having written that previous bit earlier, I then saw the following quote about Burke from a source at the club  ‘“He looks like the guy we thought we had signed,” a source said. “He is playing heads-up rugby, seeing opportunities. You will see a different version of him this year.”’ So maybe he’s closer to first choice than I think. I feel like Farrell’s return will be the making or breaking of Burke at the club.

Cinti again shows his class for Argentina particularly against the All Blacks, I think he should be first choice 13, we’ve not even scratched the surface of his potential at the club. I’m looking forward to Malins returning, he’s a class act and should be one of our leaders now. I hope he gets the 15 shirt and puts a hand up for England in that position with Furbank’s injury issues.

It would also be good to see C Bracken put pressure on IVZ and Hartley also pushing for more time. Both will be helped having Farrell on the field between them.

Overall our big weaknesses were tighthead, half back and bench last season. I think we’re significantly stronger in both areas this season.

Competitions:

I’m excited to see a good young team in the PRC, good crop coming through. A back 3 of Elliot, J Bracken and Caluori could absolutely tear up. Then Eke, Michelow, Sodeke, Hammick and West in the pack. We got hammered by injuries last season (I seem to remember Hoskins play in the backrow) and didn’t do much so I’m hoping we can have a run in the comp. I’m expecting the early rounds to be used as warm ups for the prem though.

The newly branded “Prem” has to be our focus and looking at the squad anything but top four would be disappointing. It will be tough though. Bath are favourites, Saints have recruited well, Exeter and Quins will be better, Sale are always tough. Tigers a bit of an unknown with Cheika and Pollard going but clearly have a good squad. Maybe Gloucester are the only team not looking as strong as last season?

Europe looks very tough with the draw this season. Toulouse and Clermont at home, Sharks and Glasgow away is not what you want. Maybe we can squeak through for a bad away draw like most of the last few seasons.

If you’ve made it this far, well done! How is everyone else feeling about the new season? Any glaring omissions or think I’m chatting bollocks? Let’s hear your thoughts!