Saracens boss Mark McCall has defended the decision to rest the club’s England stars from the Investec Champions Cup last-16 clash with Toulon.
None of Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Tom Willis, Ben Earl or Elliot Daly will feature in the south of France as they serve a mandatory rest-week after their Six Nations exertions.
All England regulars during the campaign are obliged to stand down from one of the first three fixtures after the tournament to manage workloads. Saracens elected to use their internationals in the Premiership defeat to Harlequins and win at Leicester on Sunday.
Their decision to prioritise the domestic competition has faced criticism, with McCall’s Harlequins counterpart Danny Wilson suggesting that naming a rotated side would be “disrespecting” the Champions Cup.
McCall defended his decision, though, insisting that it had been made long ago and with player welfare in mind.
“We are going to put out a really strong team, but we are required to rest people in one of the first three games [after the Six Nations] which means you have always got to compromise somewhere,” director of rugby McCall expleind. “Almost every club has got their own choice to make around that and we’ve chosen this game as the one of the three that our internationals had to rest in.
“Everyone is aware of the regulations and why they are there to protect player welfare. The same happened after the autumn internationals, to be honest. It’s why some teams put out weaker sides in the pool stages of Europe. Every club has got to choose whether it is the Premiership that they compromise in or Europe. We took the decision collectively with the players that they would play in the two Premiership matches.
“Probably going forward, it is not ideal that it is ...
