Saracens is fined by European Rugby Cup
Saracens has been fined £4,240 by European Rugby Cup, after its captain Steve Borthwick failed to show up to the launch of the Heineken Cup tournament.
Each club participating in the Heineken Cup must make their captain and head coach available for the launch of the tournament.
The captains and head coaches are required to attend the media event to promote the competition, but Borthwick was one of four captains who failed to attend the launch of the competition at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Saracens apologised for the absence of its captain and explained the reason the captain didn’t attend the launch was because Borthwick was away with his club on a team building and training camp.
However the ERC punished the club for not sending the player to attend the launch. The Heineken Cup organisers issued a statement that said, "ERC regards the various Heineken Cup launches as highly significant events which are designed to facilitate media
coverage of the tournament and all participating clubs have committed to sending the relevant key personnel to such launches.”
Benetton Treviso, Toulon and Toulouse also failed to send the required representatives to the media event and they were handed down similar fines.
Saracens were the only club of the 12 club sides from Scotland, Wales and England who failed to send their captains.
The fines are not significant, but the teams were warned that they must send their captains and head coaches to future events or they may face stiffer penalties.
Saracens has made a disastrous start to the competition. They lost their first match 25-10 to French side Clermont Auvergne and failed to win their home match as they lost 25-23 in a close match with the former champions Leinster.
The results mean that the Aviva Premiership team faces a tough challenge in reaching the knock-out stages of the competition.
The fine is another blow in what has been a Heineken Cup campaign that Saracens will hope to forget.
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