Zurich Premiership: Saracens Hail Another Dawn

There will be almost 50,000 people at Twickenham today for the London "double-header" which kicks off the Zurich Premiership season and anyone sporting a fez will be asking the same old question: is there any imminent danger of Saracens' latest new dawn proving more fruitful than all the previous ones?

Not even Madonna has reinvented herself more often than Sarries since rugby turned professional but assorted grounds, expensive imports, charismatic leaders and innovative ticket schemes have yielded little save wasted millions and a truckload of shattered dreams. The mind's eye recalls their backer Nigel Wray celebrating in the stands after his side had hammered Wasps 48-18 in the 1998 cup final. Today is the first time Saracens have been back to Twickenham since.

Wray, of course, has suffered more than anyone through the barren years, not least during the increasingly ill-starred era of Francois Pienaar. He is no longer the club's sole financial benefactor but the hole in his wallet last year was still too big for comfort. Now, having appointed Rod Kafer and Steve Diamond as his new dream team, hired Ireland's defence coach Mike Ford and jettisoned 17 players over the summer, the dogged Wray is daring to believe the long wait might be over.

"It's immensely hard work when you're a failure," he sighed this week. "But I think we now have the strongest off-the-field team we've ever had by miles. If we get it wrong again I would be left scratching my head. But there's no point having a club full of outstanding people and losing."

A major reason behind the recruitment of Kafer and Diamond, it emerges, is precisely their lack of star quality as players which, as with Pienaar, can mask a lack of coaching nous. Kafer is the chunky former ACT and Wallaby back remembered for having the best nickname - "Bigger than the Game" - in Australian rugby. Diamond has come down from Sale and brought half the Sharks' pack and a no-frills regime with him. If they produce the goods, Wray believes it will not necessarily be coincidental.

"There's very little correlation between great players becoming great coaches but I didn't know that before," says Wray ruefully. "Rod and Steve complement each other beautifully; one of them is quieter and more tactical, the other is more of an extrovert but they're both bright. Our goal this year is to qualify for the Heineken Cup. Anything less than that we will regard as failure."

Kafer, for his part, is committed to giving the side a more English feel and believes the game here owes Wray a bigger debt than is generally recognised, despite Saracens' years of underachievement. "Nigel is probably one of the most passionate rugby supporters you could come across and I don't think it's recognised how much influence people like him have had on the success of English rugby. He's also one of the most modest men you can meet."

Even modest men, however, have their breaking point and Wray is approaching his. On paper the new captain Hugh Vyvyan and a squad which contains six international captains of recent vintage from Taine Randell to Raphael Ibanez and Richard Hill has all the right ingredients. In reality they need a couple of early wins to settle a few nerves, in both the dressing room and the boardroom.

"This club's got great potential but we must seize it," warns Wray. "You can't indefinitely finance failure. If it was that bloody easy we'd all just go and sign a fantastically strong team but it doesn't go like that. Hopefully we're going to be much more professional this year. We thrashed Wasps at Twickenham all those years ago but they learnt the lessons and have become the best side in the country, certainly a lot better than us. We've got to learn to be as consistent as them and this weekend should give us an indication where we are."