Austerberry: “It’s a very inappropriate time for contracts to be being discussed.”

Three time champions Saracens host unbeaten PWR league leaders and last year’s winners Gloucester-Hartpury tomorrow at the StoneX in London. Saracens’ Director of Rugby Alex Austerberry is keen to see his side taking care of business.

The Premiership Women’s Rugby run-in will see a monumental clash in north London as the sides prepare to go full tilt in Round 17 despite both having secured play-off status.

For the defending champions Gloucester, for whom next week is their bye week, it’s about the chance to go unbeaten for a whole season – a feat never achieved in the recent six year history of the women’s top flight. For Saracens, two points is all they need from their final two matches to secure a home semi-final.

Team selections have not disappointed with Saracens naming three returning Canadian internationals on the bench, fresh from having defeated New Zealand for the very first time in their history and winning the 2024 Pacific Four Series. Lotte Clapp returns having featured for the USA in their win in Sydney against the Wallaroos.

Managing returning players is a challenge for a head coach. Some players may return in form, others under par. Some internationals will be buoyed by successful campaigns, others may have suffered heavy losses or not have featured as much as they hoped. From the end of the Guinness Women’s 6 Nations to the ongoing PAC4 Series, Alex Austerberry works hard to help his Saracens players when they walk back through the club door.

Austerberry said this week, “When people are in a good space, it’s far easier to manage them. We’ve got enough experience in the group and from those players coming back that it’s not too far down the line that someone gives you a reset – whether that be an England coach giving you a review post 6 Nations or whether it be a set back or something.

“The more challenging one is when players have picked up injuries or had disappointing campaigns whether that be through lack of minutes or through certain feedback. Or at this time of year, it’s contract talks with people, which is a very inappropriate time for contracts to be being discussed but that’s the way it fell this year unfortunately.”

Austerberry continues, “They’re the challenging ones. It’s not like some other sports or our male equivalents where you’re leaving England contracted players to a full-time contract at club. There’s a lot of insecurity around that. That becomes really challenging. It’s not just the disappointment of the event, it’s then potentially the disappointment and uncertainty of what’s next.”

Whether it’s the wolfpack moniker or the tiki-tiki-tonga songs, Saracens has always been a proud club in terms of how it creates an environment that pulls players closer and offers the right support. That might not always be about the head coach. 

Austerberry commented, “It’s about making sure there’s an independent voice, a safety net there to help them back but hopefully what we try to build at Saracens is their safe space, it’s their enjoyment, it’s their friends, it’s their family. So they come back here and if they are a little bit down and dejected then we come together to hopefully put them in a more positive space and entice them with the exciting things that are on the horizon. That might be a home game against Gloucester-Hartpury, a game against Loughborough, a semi-final – it’s looking forward but making sure that they’ve got the support in and around them, the psychological, social and emotional, to make sure it’s not just a façade they put on, that they’re in the right place.”

While Austerberry jokes that the matchday production team “do not allow my creative input to shine”, he might just throw on a bit of Bachman-Turner Overdrive in his final pre-match team meeting, ‘Takin’ Care of Business’.

He says, “The players are probably sick of me talking about taking care of business. It’s probably a mantra that resonates season to season and certainly at this time of year and around securing semi-final play-offs.”

“Week in, week out, you’re playing against the best sides but we have to make sure we’re the best version of ourselves. We need to bring the intensity, bring the physicality, bring the level of execution, be cerebral enough to do the right things at the right time. And even if we do the wrong thing, make it a right thing by doing it well. 

“Taking care of business – because otherwise you lose sight and can get caught up in the media hype, the what-ifs scenarios. You’ve got to just keep focused on what you can control. It sounds boring and it very much is! It’s why people talk about it across sport and business. Control what you can control, do what you can do to the best of our ability and whatever comes from that, at least we’ll know where we’re at.”

Saracens v Gloucester-Hartpury is live on TNT Sports and BBC iPlayer on Saturday 25th May, coverage from 11.30am.

 

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