Tibo Flament

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Mine, mine, my precious ......

[MarleyWasp]

The residency period changes to 5 years on 31st December 2020, so effectively if a player has lived in England for 36 consecutive months since 31st December 2017, they would still be able to play in the 2021 6 Nations. Any player who moved in 2018 onwards will have to serve the 5 years.

[Shugs]

Been a real bonus hasn't he. And an important one given what's happened with JG and JL. Rowlands has impressed me more this season as well. An area which was (rightly) talked about as a potential issue looks a bit better now with this quartet and we've also got TV and TC in and around the squad. Not sure where it leaves Matthews.

[DGP Wasp]

The Matthews - Symonds swap was a bit baffling at the time.  More so now with the benefit of hindsight.  Symonds has been playing regularly and well for Quins.  Matthews has barely played for us, and only ever out of necessity.  Given his experience he must've been signed with a view to him being firmly in the first team mix and rotating with JL, JG etc, but that just hasn't happened.  Can't imagine their respective salaries were vastly different, so on the face of it, it doesn't look like a cap management* decision.

[* For the benefit of any Sarries fans reading, this is where a DoR has to make the very difficult decision to dispense with a player they would very much like to keep and replace them with someone with lower salary expectations in order to ensure that the club's overall spend on senior players' salaries remains within the league's agreed salary cap.]

[Tervueren]

The Matthews - Symonds swap was a bit baffling at the time.  More so now with the benefit of hindsight.  Symonds has been playing regularly and well for Quins.  Matthews has barely played for us, and only ever out of necessity.  Given his experience he must've been signed with a view to him being firmly in the first team mix and rotating with JL, JG etc, but that just hasn't happened.  Can't imagine their respective salaries were vastly different, so on the face of it, it doesn't look like a cap management* decision.

[* For the benefit of any Sarries fans reading, this is where a DoR has to make the very difficult decision to dispense with a player they would very much like to keep and replace them with someone with lower salary expectations in order to ensure that the club's overall spend on senior players' salaries remains within the league's agreed salary cap.]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/11/26/saracens-open-fresh-audit-ensure-compliance-salary-cap/

Clearly they have finished hiding everything  all is now above board at Salarysins

[Neils]

The Matthews - Symonds swap was a bit baffling at the time.  More so now with the benefit of hindsight.  Symonds has been playing regularly and well for Quins.  Matthews has barely played for us, and only ever out of necessity.  Given his experience he must've been signed with a view to him being firmly in the first team mix and rotating with JL, JG etc, but that just hasn't happened.  Can't imagine their respective salaries were vastly different, so on the face of it, it doesn't look like a cap management* decision.

[* For the benefit of any Sarries fans reading, this is where a DoR has to make the very difficult decision to dispense with a player they would very much like to keep and replace them with someone with lower salary expectations in order to ensure that the club's overall spend on senior players' salaries remains within the league's agreed salary cap.]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/11/26/saracens-open-fresh-audit-ensure-compliance-salary-cap/

Clearly they have finished hiding everything  all is now above board at Salarysins

Does make you think strongly that a severe clearance operation has now been completed. After last Wednesday's team meeting they all a re-signed up to where all their financial rewards are going to be hidden. Stinks.

[Tervueren]

Opinions will polarize between those who think all is well and those who continue to believe something stinks, and the facts being under lock and key does not help that.

The current cap system appears to not have been designed to cater for a deliberate conspiracy to beat the cap where someone is determined to get around it at any cost to be on the winning side.

Not sure if such a system exists anywhere else.

[Rifleman Harris]

I think I mentioned elsewhere that it no longer matters whether they can show documentary evidence that they are clean or not.  They were cheating the cap since 2013 / 14. They were found out in 2014, nothing changed and they immediately went on to cheat again for the subsequent 3 seasons.  They have been found out again, nothing has changed again and yet they want us to believe that they are clean. 

They have previous form on this, they have an inexplicably large number of internationals, Lions and senior players who probably should be internationals and the architect of this cheating is still running the club. They can show all the accounts they like, it will just confirm that they have another way around the cap and the cheating continues.  The only thing that will convince most people that they are clean is if there are tangible, visible changes within the club.  If they don't do that then everything they touch will be tainted.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

The Matthews - Symonds swap was a bit baffling at the time.  More so now with the benefit of hindsight.  Symonds has been playing regularly and well for Quins.  Matthews has barely played for us, and only ever out of necessity.  Given his experience he must've been signed with a view to him being firmly in the first team mix and rotating with JL, JG etc, but that just hasn't happened.  Can't imagine their respective salaries were vastly different, so on the face of it, it doesn't look like a cap management* decision.

[* For the benefit of any Sarries fans reading, this is where a DoR has to make the very difficult decision to dispense with a player they would very much like to keep and replace them with someone with lower salary expectations in order to ensure that the club's overall spend on senior players' salaries remains within the league's agreed salary cap.]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/11/26/saracens-open-fresh-audit-ensure-compliance-salary-cap/

Clearly they have finished hiding everything  all is now above board at Salarysins

Does make you think strongly that a severe clearance operation has now been completed. After last Wednesday's team meeting they all a re-signed up to where all their financial rewards are going to be hidden. Stinks.

All financial records have now been shredded and hidden. Only the official Salarycens records now exist. all co-investments will now be hidden offshore and financed through offshore shell companies. Some Maltese government financial experts, on loan from Sicily, have been assisting with the burial process. All clean here, move on, nothing to be seen.

[Tervueren]

A chain of Nige's Laundrettes will be opening soon

[baldpaul101]

Yet another thread ending up about Sarries......should we rename the board "Once a Sarrie....always a cheat"?

[Neils]

Tibo is coming on nicely and is obviously turning heads at the club - probably unexpectedly!

[Peej]

I think he's been quality, a real find. I had no idea that he had played 10 until that snippet in the commentary.

I think long-term his future could be at 6, but he has been brilliant. I confess I had forgotten about Matthews until he was mentioned further up the thread. I actually think he offers us a lot, but his continued absence is just baffling. Maybe he was being saved for the league games and we'll see him at Sandy Park?

[baldpaul101]

his continued absence is just baffling

Why is it baffling?
Surely its a sign that he's not doing in training, or the games he's played, what the coaches want him to do?

[Peej]

his continued absence is just baffling

Why is it baffling?
Surely its a sign that he's not doing in training, or the games he's played, what the coaches want him to do?

I think it's more that he's done well in the games I've seen him play in, and yet doesn't get many opportunities - despite the fact that from what I've seen he's contributed more than Gaskell or Rowlands. But as you say, there's far more that goes on away from game day that we don't see.