Sports29 September, 20262 min read
Saracens Face Fines After Brendan Venter Skips Media Duties
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Saracens fined £5,000 for Brendan Venter's failure to meet media duties. Venter missed pre-season launch and had no media engagement before or after games.
Venter skips media again
Saracens head coach Joe Shaw refused to say when, or if, director of rugby Brendan Venter will speak to the media again as the club faces fines for Venter not doing media duties.
“‘I'm just going to talk about the rugby.”
Shaw told reporters, "I'm just going to talk about the rugby. "I'll leave the club to talk about where we stand on all those kind of things."
Prem Rugby fined Saracens £5,000 after Venter was not present at the Prem's pre-season launch day, and the club also faced fines after Venter did not attend a pre-match press conference for their forthcoming game with Sale.
Saracens also confirmed in January that Venter would be returning as director of rugby after Mark McCall stepped down at the end of last season after 15 years in the job.
Shaw later addressed an injury blow, confirming that centre Olly Hartley broke his arm in Sunday's 40-38 win at Leicester.
New wine consultant role
Saracens confirmed Brendan Venter stepped down as director of rugby and accepted a new role as "head of rugby culture and wine consultant" after a £5,000 fine for breaching media obligations. The club said head coach Joe Shaw took over responsibility for Saracens' media engagements, and Saracens informed PREM Rugby that Venter transitioned into a different capacity. Venter had missed a pre-season content capture day intended to promote the league earlier this month and then failed to appear at a media briefing before Saracens' season opener against Leicester Tigers, triggering an additional suspended £500 fine.
Venter said he had asked Saracens chief executive Ed Coetzee to invite rugby journalists to a wine-tasting at StoneX Stadium next month, adding, "I am happy to respond to any questions that they wish to ask me over a glass of wine." Saracens also said PREM Rugby commercial regulations require each club's director of rugby to participate in a midweek media session, conduct a pre-match or flash interview, and be present at the post-match press conference on match days.
Fines, disputes, and fallout
Saracens said it had already sought approval in July for Shaw to manage their media responsibilities, while the club challenged the £5,000 sanction imposed after Venter's absence from the Prem's pre-season media day. Prem Rugby regulations require clubs' rugby leaders to attend scheduled media activities, including midweek sessions and match-day interviews, and the dispute left Saracens arguing that Venter's official position had changed. Wales Online said Saracens were warned that any subsequent violations would incur escalating fines of £1,000 and then £2,000, after the club received a further suspended £500 penalty.
The club also emphasized that its rugby leadership framework concentrates authority around the head coach rather than a director of rugby, with Venter's new role focused on "culture, values and broader development of the playing and coaching setup." Saracens' media dispute unfolded alongside the club's on-field start, with Shaw confirming Hartley broke his arm in the 40-38 win at Leicester and describing how the team "managed to to shuffle things around really calmly" after the injury.