Saracens’ soul will remain English, insists Brendan Venter

The former Springbok centre who enjoyed success as a player and coach with London Irish, will formally take over his role as the new director of rugby at the club on 1 July.

He replaces Eddie Jones, the ex-Wallaby coach, who quit the Guinness Premiership outfit in February over the direction they were taking following a £6million cash injection from SAIL, a South African investment company that owns 50 per cent of the club.

Venter met the Sarries squad three months ago and with up to a dozen told they did not feature in his plans, speculation grew that the way was being cleared for an influx of South African players aimed at attracting ex-pats who live in the south-east to watch the team.

Sarries are lining up Premiership matches at Wembley next season and are also interested in using Craven Cottage to stage games. The players — those leaving — and long suffering fans have expressed serious concerns over Venter's actions but the man himself is adamant he is not a wrecking ball.

The 39-year-old, who is also a qualified general practitioner, said: "I think that at last sanity has prevailed and people have realised just how absurd the things that were being said really were. It was claimed a total takeover was happening and that was never the object of the owners.

"That's why I didn't say anything at that time because there is no point trying to convince the critics but now people can see how the squad are shaping up and that the coaching staff didn't change after Eddie Jones left.

"Acting head coach Richard Graham has got a fantastic appointment with the Wallabies but everyone else is staying.

"It wouldn't have made any difference how many times I had come out and said, Trust me, it's not going to be like that', critics wouldn't have believed me. I just left it because there was no value at that stage in trying to vindicate what was happening. Now that the squad is being assembled people can see it's not what was being predicted.

"I have put together a really good squad and Eddie, before me, put a good squad in place and I knew that having already worked as a consultant at Sarries. I grew to respect what all the management were doing and so there wasn't that much to change. The reason Eddie left was because he didn't share the same vision for the club as the owners."

Although Venter won't reveal his exact squad until 1 July, the club have confirmed that All Black No9 Justin Marshall has agreed a deal to stay while other new faces include Italian prop Carlos Nieto, Fiji wing Michael Tagicakibau and three Englishmen, Treviso full-back Michael Horak, London Irish prop Richard Skuse and Exeter scrum-half Kevin Barrett.

There will be some South African players, with Sharks prop Frik Venter and hooker Ethienne Reynecke already announced as signings.

Venter explained: "When people see the squad we have assembled in July they will say it's not that different but at the stage when the change was announced in February, there was a clash. I know that Sarries have a fantastic fan base and every time I played against them it was a very tough day.

"I hear what the owners are saying about enlarging that fan base by adding a bit of a South African flavour but the reason this is a great club is because of the English fans.
"One of the first things I said was to the young English guys is that you are the players I would love to build the club around. There will be a South African flavour but not to the extent that everyone was making out."