Bracken named as captain

By Jason Harris
August 4 2002

Saracens and England scrum half Kyran Bracken has been appointed captain of his club for the forthcoming 2002-03 season. Centre Kevin Sorrell and lock Craig Yandell have been named "co-captains" to cover for Bracken in his absence.

Revealed by coach Wayne Shelford in front of a healthy crowd at the season ticket barbecue at Bramley Road on Sunday, Bracken returns to the job he was given two seasons ago and takes over from French international Abdel Benazzi.

Due to Bracken's ongoing commitments with the England squad, Shelford has arranged cover in the shape of Sorrell and Yandell, two players who are likely to figure in the Sarries first team, but perhaps not in the England reckoning.

Also at the "meet and greet" session the new squad introduced themselves to the crowd one at a time and it was good to see the new faces in among those more familiar ones. Highlight of the often tongue-in-cheek speeches made by the players came from Kieran Roche and Craig Quinnell.

Roche's ambition for the coming season was "to stay on the pitch for more than 30 secones"; referring to his sin-binnings of last year after just a very short while on the field. Quinnell said his ambition for the new term was "also to stay on the field for more than 30 seconds"; reference here to his somewhat less than perfect disciplinary record in the past.

There seems to be a lot more good feeling at the start of this new season which should see, for the first time, Thomas Castaignede and Tim Horan on the same team, a great battle for places in the front five and plenty of pace and talent in the outside backs.

One player that will definitely be missing the start of the season, however, is Scottish international hooker Robbie Russell who is recovering from back surgery and, according to him, will be out for a couple of months at least.

Finally, a special mention for the Fezboys and the Saracens backroom staff who played a great game of tag rugby in monsoon conditions with the staff winning nine tries to four. A cameo appearance from none other than Buck Shelford himself bolstered the Staff side but it didn't prevent McNab on the Fezboys side from putting in a copybook tackle on the All-Black legend. Shame for McNab, then, that the ball was about 20 metres away at the time!

A great time was had by all and Sarries hope to build on this momentum for the coming season, beginning with the Coventry friendly game on 6 August and then the Japanse tour. The Zurich Premiership campaign kicks off at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol on 1 September.