Saracens primed to emulate Tigers’ long period of dominance

George Kruis is confident Saracens can create a long-lasting legacy by repeating last season’s heroics to become the first Premiership side since Leicester in 2002 to win back-to-back ‘doubles’.
Starring alongside the indomitable Maro Itoje in the second row, Kruis helped lay the foundations for a stunning campaign that earned cup final victories over Racing 92 and Exeter.
Now he is ready for more, telling The Rugby Paper: “To do what we did last season in an era like this was special and won’t be forgotten. The Champions Cup was something we worked so hard for and, having lost semi-finals and finals before, to get over the line was memorable.
“But when you think of that Leicester side of old and how long they had that period of dominance, I think we’ve now got a very good chance of being able to do that. It doesn’t mean we will, but we’ve got a lot of good things in place here at Saracens.
“We’ve got a good squad with an average age of around 26 and staff who are locked in place for the next three or four years, so hopefully there’s much more to come. It’s a pretty exciting time and the more finals you play in, the more confident you get.
“We’ve always taken confidence in how we prepare and how hard we work, so as long as we keep giving that effort our confidence will stay up there. In every sense we’ve got improvements to make but it’ll be about creating a legacy this season.”
Fresh from his stellar season which culminated in helping Eddie Jones’ England clinch a 3-0 series whitewash in Australia following their earlier Six Nations Grand Slam, 26-year-old Kruis cannot help pinching himself at how quickly things have turned around.
Left despondent after being ditched by ex-England boss Stuart Lancaster midway through the 2015 Six Nations and then making just two cameo replacement appearances during England’s failed World Cup bid, Kruis has been a revelation for club and country.
The plaudits are still coming, with no less a luminary than 2003 World Cup-winning lock Ben Kay recently telling The Rugby Paper that Kruis and club partner-in-crime Maro Itoje can be England’s go-to second row combo for many years to come.
Kruis is too worldly wise to take anything like that for granted, though, saying: “It’s nice of Ben to say that but there are some top quality second rowers in England and it’s going to be very hard for anyone to come close to winning 100 caps.
“I was disappointed after the World Cup and it’s hard when you put a lot into something like that with all the training camps we went through before. You push yourself to the limit so it was a disappointment for the whole team, not just individuals.
“But you come back to your club, shake yourself down, and it was quite nice that there were a group of us Sarries guys in the same boat. You feel like you have to push each other, so we got a couple of early wins and the rest of the season went from there.
“You have the good and bad times, that’s professional sport, but last season definitely turned into a very special one. To win the Grand Slam with England, a ‘double’ with Saracens and then win so well in Australia was something great to be a part of.”
With England moving to second in the world, Kruis is desperate to continue his rich vein of form and close the gap on New Zealand.
He said: “They’re the team to beat and we don’t play them for a while, so it gives us the chance to keep working and improving. As long as we keep moving forwards we’ll be there or thereabouts.
“I want to be part of that, but there’s good competition. Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes are pushing and there are other guys outside the squad champing at the bit to get in, so there’s no resting on any laurels.”
Jones fired a warning shot a fortnight by revealing his displeasure at England’s lineout failings in the second Test against Australia.
Kruis took the message on board, saying: “He wants a big focus on the set-piece and to take things from there. If we want to be No.1 in the world we’ve got to be consistently No.1 in all facets and it’s a big learning curve for quite a young pack.
“You take a certain amount of plaudits and we worked hard as a group during the Six Nations and again in Australia, but it all starts again now.
“Eddie brought clarity to what he wanted and that was the biggest thing for me. He tells you what he wants and lets you know if you’re not performing – which ensures everyone pushes themselves to the maximum in training.”
Whilst ebullient second row partner Itoje has been taking most of the praise for recent successes, the more workmanlike Kruis was on the winning side in 30 of the 32 matches he played.
There are no hard feelings, though. “Maro’s a superstar and he’s probably added extra rooms to his mansion now and hired two more butlers!
“I haven’t checked the stats but any Saracens player would have a high per centage of wins and what we achieve comes off the back of hard work. It’s across the board and Maro deserves all the accolades he gets.”
NEALE HARVEY