Saracens linked to All Black star Chris Jack

It’s a busy time of year off the pitch for Chief Executive Mark Sinderberry and Director of Rugby Alan Gaffney as they begin to look at their recruitment plans for next season. As many of you will have seen this morning, speculation has already started linking players to the club with All Black second row Chris Jack a name appearing in the Daily Mail.

“Chris is one of a number of players we are looking at,” confirmed Sinderberry this morning. “He is a quality player who could add a lot of balance to the squad and it would be great if we could get him. We have been talking but it’s still very early days in terms of the negotiations. But we would like to think that we will be able to make one or two significant signings for next season.

“In terms of the recruitment, we’ve obviously got to look at getting the right balance in the squad along with taking into account the options we have in different positions – that also includes looking at which players are coming through the Academy system and at what stage we’re expecting them to be able to challenge for a first team spot.

“As is the case at most clubs at the end of a season, there will be players who move on or take the decision to retire. We’re expecting that to be the case with a handful of our players, but I’d like to stress to everyone that there will not be a large turnover of players. I believe part of our improvement this season has been down to the fact that we have been able to keep a core group of players together in the past two or three seasons. We’ll just be looking to add a few new faces in the summer.

“On top of that, work is also ongoing in terms of finalising new deals for current members of the squad who may be out of contract at the end of the current season. We hope to be able to announce new deals for two younger members of the squad within the next week or so.”