Paul Rees offers his take on Steve Borthwick's absence from the Heineken Cup launch in The Guardian.
"Millwall supporters in the 1970s used to chant: "No one likes us, we don't care." They probably still do but in rugby union it is Saracens, the club itself rather than fans, who take a delight in being different.
"Never afraid to target the eye of authority, Saracens hijacked the launch of the Heineken Cup this week by telling their captain, Steve Borthwick, to sample the delights of the Munich beer festival rather than answer a summons from the organisers to perch himself on a high chair in a lounge in the Millennium Stadium. Lunch rather than launch.
"All the other five English clubs in the tournament supplied the required head coach and captain. Sarries were represented by their director of rugby, Brendan Venter, who made no apologies for Borthwick's absence. He wanted all his players to relax and bond after their victory over Northampton before matches against Leicester and Clermont Auvergne."
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