"Move to the left a bit Brendan, the bloke behind you can actually see the game"

As we all know, Saracens are very much the Newcastle United of rugby. Despite all their money, big players and delusions of importance their trophy cabinet remains as desolate as the shelf Gordon Brown put aside for  "Sorry to see you go" cards.  

For a long time, they simply seem to have lacked that something extra.

This year things look a little different.  First of all, they are in the semi-finals of the Guinness Premiership, and having just rolled over Leicester at Welford Road their tails are up somewhat.  On top of this, their manager, former Springbok and winner of  2010 David Carradine Lookalike (Southern Region) Competition, Brendan Venter, is leading the way in making them nasty.

First of all he slagged off referee David Rose in a forty-minute rant back in January, cryptically accusing him of "walking through a maze or something [at half time], and coming out another referee."  This was simply because Rose gave more penalties to the opposition than in the first half.  THE BASTARD!

Then, a few weeks back, he managed to enrage Northampton fans by leading Saracens in a celebration akin to the New Orleans Mardi Gras following his side's victory at Franklin's Gardens.  Venter was keen to play this down, albeit in a completely solipsistic manner, by stating that "We always sing our song when we win, it was a fantastic day".  Lovely.

And finally, this weekend he stood chatting to the referees assessor in front of the Tigers fans, blocking their view of the game and then waved and bowed to them as he walked off at half-time.  He then used the "I love them and some of my best friends are Leicester fans" defence when asked to explain himself.  Of course, everyone has missed the main issue with this little event: what was he doing talking to a refassessor?  This means his is either a) trying to influence them unduly, or b) the most boring man on earth.

All that said, I'm sure Sarries fans could not give one about any of this, as it seems one side-effect of his barely-hidden madness is that they are winning.