Large's Top 50 Saracens - The Top 10

Richard Hill
By Large
March 4 2009

And so here we are. The top 10. It would have been easy to pick a load of players from the Cup winning side of 1998 as they are, rightly, revered because it is still the only trophy we have ever won and the next is long overdue. As usual, there might be one or two controversies of the omissions, and definitely over the order, but I'm sure you'll agree that everyone in this list deserves his place.

10. Neil de Kock – Scrum Half

Anyone old enough to remember Terry Holmes before he went oop north will also make the connection between Holmes and Niles. As tough as they come, but also has vision and pace. After Kyran Bracken’s retirement Saracens needed someone to galvanise the pack and to get that link between them and the backs working, and both things were, and continue to be done with aplomb by the South African.

9. Tony Diprose – Number 8

When I was a kid I always aspired to play like Diprose did when he was here. Great hands, great pass and great spatial awareness marked him out as the number 8 of the future. Until he disagreed with Frankie Peanuts about the colour of the team bus interior and he was summarily packed off down the road to Quins. It was sad end to a glittering Sarries career that should have lasted at least five years longer.

8. Kevin Sorrell – Centre

I hate the cliché “He’s a good club man” and, unfortunately, that’s exactly how Superkev is going to be remembered as he didn’t get the England recognition he richly deserved. He’s seen all the comings and goings and still keeps plugging away in the outside centre whether times are good or bad, and no matter who’s there picking the team, he still gets picked which is a testament to his ability and consistency in over a decade of service.

7. Kris Chesney – Anywhere he damn well pleases

Well, you wouldn’t argue with him, would you? Apart from a short stint with Bristol and a dabble with rugby league, he’s been here since God was a boy and started life as Barking’s answer to Jonah Lomu. Although, unlike Lomu, he moved into the forwards to become one of the best enforcers in the league. 300+ selections for Sarries are proof that he’s always been an important part of the set-up and, for me, an automatic Sarries Hall of Famer.

6. Philippe Sella – Centre

“Sella’s a jolly good fella, and so say all the Fez”, went the old song during our “Where were you when we were pants?” period. Here for only two seasons, his midfield mastery outside Michael Lynagh, best exemplified in the 1998 cup final, was great to watch. Like Lynagh, a former world record holder (for caps won, while Lynagh’s was for international points scored) and it was no surprise that he and Lynagh were the first two players in the Sarries Hall of Fame.

5. Cobus Visagie – Prop

We’ve had a few good fat blokes at Saracens down the years but the big Bok is easily the best of the bunch. I’ve never seen him go backwards and I always get the feeling that when he’s penalised in the scrum that it’s because he’s bored with toying with his opponent. A favourite match of mine was the one where Cobus wound up the perennially overrated Andy Sheridn to the point where he had to be replaced before he blew his top. Great stuff. Cobus is probably the best scrummager I have ever seen in 35 years following the game and he is now is passing on his craft to the next generation of Sarries front row forwards. Long may it continue.

4. Michael Lynagh – Outside half

Here’s a question for you fellow oldies: Would Noddy be this high in the list had we not won the 1998 Tetley’s Bitter Cup? Probably. Anyway, that’s moot as his contribution, albeit brief, was one that helped build Saracens into a team to be reckoned with by the turn of the millennium. Unfortunately all his hard work was undone by the myopic, impatient fly half recruitment policy employed by the club for the next seven years and the arrival of…..

3. Glen Jackson – Outside Half

Now sit down, all you Michael Lynagh fans. The figures speak for themselves. As did the critics when he first arrived (clueless, the lot of ‘em for not seeing a good player right under their noses) but Jacko deserves his place here for being the consistent cog in the Sarries machine the past four seasons. Something beyond the wit of many a coach, director of rugby, board member (Shh, Large, you’re going to say too much about those) after we stumbled through seemingly dozens of 10s between the great Aussie’s retirement and the arrival of the Bay of Plenty pivot. Jackson will be a very tough act to follow when he finally hangs up his prolific, point-scoring boots.

2. Kyran Bracken – Scrum Half

You have to have some sympathy for “Broken”. That nickname came about after the Prince of Fez (not to be confused with Copsey, King of Fez, who doesn’t make this list because he’s now at Pests – we can forgive only some things you know) was consistently crocked. What people didn’t add that he would go in where his erstwhile contemporaries Dawson and Gomarsall would not even contemplate. Had those other to half backs and those knocks not been around, I’m certain he’d have won a century of caps for England.

1. Richard Hill - Flanker

If I put in “Richard Hill – Deity” most people would not object. Space does not permit me to elaborate too much about a player who was, for me at least, not only the best flanker of his generation, but the best of ANY generation. In his swansong season his performance against the Ospreys will be immortalised along with many others for club, country and the Lions. A true legend of the game. Nuff said.

Large's Top 50 Saracens - The Top 10

Posted by: TheSaracens.com (IP Logged)

Date: 04/03/2009 09:55

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