Saracens are refusing to give up on their captain Steve Borthwick being available for the Heineken Cup final in Cardiff. The club admit the lock is nursing “a significant pectoral injury” but will delay a final decision on whether to risk him against Toulon at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
With Mouritz Botha having withdrawn from last Saturday’s Premiership semi-final at short notice with a back spasm and George Kruis out for the rest of the season, Saracens would dearly love to have Borthwick, the former England captain, fit for the biggest game in the club’s history. The 34-year-old is to retire at the end of the season but, barring a rapid recovery, is in danger of missing next week’s Premiership final as well.
Mark McCall, the director of rugby, said Borthwick had “made some progress” but conceded the player has no better than a 50-50 chance to lead out his side against Toulon, the defending champions. “We wouldn’t gamble at all. He’s got a chance but he hasn’t trained yet and there are a few things he’s got to do before he’s declared fit. If he doesn’t play we’ll just have to get on with it. We think we have a lot of other people who can provide leadership and direction but nobody deserves to play in these finals more than Steve Borthwick.”
If Borthwick does fail to make it, the second-row combination is likely to involve a patched-up Botha alongside the South African Alastair Hargreaves, who will be charged with stopping seasoned internationals such as Bakkies Botha, Ali Williams and Danie Rossouw from applying too much set-piece pressure.
Saracens are also acutely mindful of not allowing Jonny Wilkinson the opportunity to punish them as ruthlessly as he did in last year’s semi-finalat Twickenham, when he landed seven penalties and a drop-goal. “With six of those penalties we were in possession of the ball in our own half,” McCall said. “There’s a lesson for us there. Where you play the game is very important against Jonny Wilkinson and this opposition. We’ve got to be unbelievably accurate in our own half.”
McCall also said that Owen Farrell and Alex Goode would be flying to Cardiff for their eve-of-game kicking session before returning to London that same afternoon and travelling back to Wales with their team-mates on Saturday morning. “They’ll probably get there and back quicker than when we went to Twickenham,” McCall said.
