Saracens' Alex Goode on the charge in France
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English clubs could be left behind by the combined financial clout of the French giants, according to Mick Cleary in The Daily Telegraph.
"Don’t be fooled by Nigel Wray’s affable exterior. As any fan of Reggie Perrin knows, you don’t get to achieve what Wray has in business without having a cold-eyed grasp of bottom lines and a hard-nosed attitude as to what needs to be done.
"The Saracens chairman knows only too well that if his club do not get themselves sorted out with a new stadium or considerably better facilities than those on offer at Vicarage Road pretty damn soon, they will be also-rans.
"Wray was a guest of Clermont-Auvergne for Saturday’s Heineken Cup opening Pool Two game. It was a splendid occasion, from the moment the capacity crowd of 16,000 began jumping in unison to club anthems long before kick-off to the alarming, if absurd, sight of a 10-strong phalanx of security guards rushing out at the final whistle to pack in around Scottish referee Peter Allen as he left the field. Colour, noise, a whiff of menace – French rugby at its intoxicating best."
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