Saracens

Saracens
Full name	Saracens Rugby Club
Founded	1876
Stadion	Allianz Park , Hendon , London
Places	19,920
president	Nigel Wray
Trainer	Mark McCall
Homepage	www.saracens.com
league	English Premiership
2018/19	master
home	Away

The Saracens (officially Saracens Rugby Club , founded as Saracens Football Club ) are an English rugby union club from Hendon in the London borough of Barnet , which plays in the Premiership , the top English league. The home games have been played in Allianz Park, which has around 10,000 seats, since 2013 .

history

The Saracens were founded in 1876 by former students of the Philological School in Marylebone, London . In 1878 the merger with the Crusaders took place. For the first sixty years, the club played on no fewer than ten different courses on the northern outskirts, until it finally moved to Bramley Road in what is now Enfield in 1939 (even if the war did not allow the actual game to play until 1945).

The Saracens played against the country's leading clubs for many years (there was no organized league until 1987) and were particularly successful in the 1970s when they reached the English Cup semi-finals. The stadium on Bramley Road had the largest number of spectators (approx. 5000) in 1971 when the Saracens played against an international team that ended 34:34.

In 1988 the Saracens rose to the Courage League, the forerunner of today's Premiership . In 1993 the league was reduced by three teams, whereupon the Saracens had to relegate. Already in 1995 the rise was successful. At the end of the following season, the Saracens were again at the bottom of the table, but they escaped relegation because the league was increased by two teams.

The Saracens at a home game on Vicarage Road in September 2005.

The 1997/98 season was a milestone in the club's history. The Saracens signed a cooperation agreement with Watford FC. Until 2013, the first team played in the stadium on Vicarage Road , which is more than four times the size of the club's own stadium. In addition, they won the English Cup for the first time and so far only in 2011; in the final they beat the Wasps with 48:18. In the 1999/2000 and 2000/01 seasons, the Saracens took part in the European Heineken Cup .

In the 2009/10 season, the Saracens advanced to the final for the first time, in which they were subject to the Leicester Tigers . The revenge they succeeded in the following season 2010/11, when they met the Tigers again in the final, won with 22:18 and thus won the championship title for the first time. In 2013 the Saracens moved to the renovated Allianz Park. In the same year they finished the regular championship season in first place, but were surprisingly subject to the Northampton Saints in the semifinals . In the following two years they won the championship. In 2016, 2017 and 2019 they won the European Rugby Champions Cup . In 2018 and 2019 the Saracens became English champions again after losing in the final against the Exeter Chiefs in 2017 .