Mark McCall backs Saracens stars to play for England in Six Nations despite Premiership relegation fight

Jamie George, Mako Vunipola, Owen Farrel and Maro Itoje are among the key men for both Saracens and England
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Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall is “100 per cent” behind his players representing England during the Six Nations - even with the club facing a fight to stay in the Premiership.

Saracens were this week docked 35 points and fined over £5million after they opted against appealing a ruling by an independent panel that found they had breached the Premiership’s salary cap in each of the past three seasons.

The points deduction means the club are now rock bottom of the Premiership on -22 points and 26 points adrift of Leicester Tigers in 11th.

Saracens now face a genuine fight to stay in the top flight and it led to England head coach Eddie Jones this week questioning whether players would put club before country during next year’s Six Nations.

“There might be some Saracens players who feel like they've got to play for their club instead of their country, to make sure they don't go down,” he said.

However McCall has responded by saying he is fully committed to key players in his squad - such as Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell - playing for England and not Saracens during the Six Nations.

“I didn't read that, I heard about it. I'm not sure why he (Jones) is saying that to be honest. You will have to ask him,” said McCall.

“Playing international rugby is really important and we want our players to play for their country and we will be continuing to support our players playing for England.

“I genuinely want our players to play for England. Of course I do, it’s the absolute pinnacle of the game.

“Wanting to play in the Six Nations doesn't mean you're not committed to the club. All of these guys are 100 per cent committed to the club, but playing for your country is playing for your country and I would support that every time.

“They want to help but they are sensible enough to know when is the right time for them. Some of them will play this week, and a couple won't probably, and play their first game against Bath the week after.

“But just to be clear, because I don’t want to be misquoted on this, I support our players playing for England 100 per cent. I would encourage them to do that.”

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