By The Saracens
June 20 2026

Saracens and Mark McCall are synonymous with each other. For 17 years he has been a fixture at the club. Under his leadership Sarries became the most successful club in Europe: 6 Premiership Titles and 3 European Champions Cups. StoneX is going to  be a very strange place without him come September.

When Mark joined Sarries back in 2009, few of us could have imagined the path he and the club would take together over the next 17 years.  Having played for Ulster and London Irish, Mark won 13 caps for Ireland at inside centre before a prolapsed disc forced his early retirement at the age of 31. He moved into coaching with Ireland’s Under 21’s and A teams before becoming Head Coach at Ulster leading them to the Celtic League Title. However the following season, things started going badly, the environment became toxic and Mark resigned. He thought he’d had enough of coaching and contemplated a career in Law (he already had a Law degree and had worked with a firm of solicitors in his amateur days). However his old friend Jeremy Davidson talked him into joining him at Castres. He moved to France, spending 2 years as backs coach and rediscovering his love for the game. He might have stayed there however he received a call from his old centre partner at Irish, Brendan Venter. Brendan had just taken over at Saracens and wanted Mark to join him. Mark had his doubts. There was already a strong coaching team in place: Paul Gustard, Andy Farrell, Alex Sanderson, and he couldn’t see where he’d fit in. But Brendan convinced him. He had plans to take Sarries in a different direction, to build a group of players and coaches who would make memories together on and off the field. Brendan also wanted to create a wholistic club where everything would be taken care of so the players had nothing to worry about apart from what happened on the pitch. “Treat them incredibly well and expect them to work incredibly hard”.

Mark was won over by his old friend and the rest, as they say, is history. (He originally only intended to stay for a year though!). It’s interesting how 2 such different management styles complemented each other so well: the brash Venter, always in trouble with the RFU for saying (or not saying) something, the “night of the long knives” etc etc and Mark’s quiet reserved introspection. Yet work it did and those values that Venter established have remained as the foundation of the club we know today. In Mark’s first season at the club, Sarries reached the Premiership Final, losing to Leicester Tigers with the last kick of the match. Midway through the following season, Venter resigned. He needed to return to South Africa for personal reasons. But already things were changing at Sarries. The previous year’s defeat served only as motivation to put things right and in Mark’s first season in charge, Saracens won their first Premiership title defeating Leicester Tigers after a phenomenal defensive stand deep into added time. This was the first of 6 titles under Mark’s leadership, a Premiership record

Mark seemed to use defeats as a learning tool. Something similar happened in the Champions Cup with a defeat to Toulon followed by that fabulous victory over Racing 92 in Lyon. As we know Sarries went on to defeat Clermont in Edinburgh before probably their best win, beating Leinster in Newcastle.

Players seemed to respond to Mark’s gentle style. They cared about him and they would do anything for him. No “hairdryers” here, just trust and reassurance and support and the Saracens’ values: Honesty, Hard Work, Discipline, Humility. You could argue that it didn’t always go to plan but over 17 years nothing ever does.

Mark oversaw the development of some of England’s greatest players. He seems to have a knack for knowing who is going to make it and who isn’t, who is ready for the big time and who needs a bit longer. Look at the players Sarries have brought I,n who have improved out of all proportion: Will Skelton, Brad Barritt, David Strettle, Sean Maitland, Eroni Mawi, and more recently Rhys Carre, Theo McFarland, Marcus Street and Juan-Martin Gonzalez. Then there are the young home-grown players who have gone on to be Internationals: Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Ben Earl, Max Malins, Nick Isiekwe, Jamie George, Theo Dan, Nick Tompkins to name just a few. Mark won the Premiership Coach of the year title 5 times, most recently in 2022/3 when Sarries won their last Premiership Title. How that must have hurt some of those men in grey suits.

Perhaps the biggest factor in his tenure has been loyalty. He has engendered an incredible loyalty among his players. Not many have moved away voluntarily, most regard Saracens as “home”, somewhere they want to stay. It’s never been about him, he has always seen himself as a facilitator for others. The salary cap nightmare must have been so hard for Mark. I have no idea what he knew or didn’t know but he was the one who had to face the music. I still remember the interview he gave when the size of the whole scandal came to light. A man who avoids the limelight, on his own, defending the club he loves. He has said that his proudest moment was also around that time. Relegation to the Championship could have finished Saracens (as no doubt some would have wished) but with only 1 or 2 exceptions, the players elected to stay and get Sarries back up to the Premiership. Mark said how proud he was of them, of the team spirit and the loyalty to Saracens that even in the darkest times, they were there for each other and for him. He has also said that the performance that he was most proud of was not any of the Premiership or European Titles, but that day back in November 2019, just when everything had come out about Saracens’ misdemeanours. A Saracens’ team shorn of its internationals, went to Kingsholm to take on a baying Gloucester team in a stadium full of menace. It was like being thrown to the lions in the Colosseum yet those players put in the performance of their lives, came away with a win, and salvaged a tiny bit of pride.

Since he announced his retirement there have been thousands of words written about him. No one has a bad word to say about him, he’s genuinely Mr Nice Guy. He said in an interview that his biggest regret was that he didn’t make the most of his time representing Ireland. He lacked confidence and didn’t believe he was good enough to be there. He subsequently said he would never let that happen to any of his players. He would always be there for them, support them, reassure them and make sure they knew they had earned their place in whatever team or squad they were selected for. We saw that in Saracens too. They grew from a team who didn’t feel worthy of being champions to a team who very much knew where they belonged, at the top table. I still remember the final in 2019 when Exeter seemed to be winning the match hands down and the team, led by Faz, somehow decided that wasn’t happening. Their confidence, their self-belief was enough to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat.

Next season will seem very strange without Mark at the helm. We all owe him so much. He has safely piloted the club we love through the stormiest of waters. It seems nothing has been able to break into his world. Except time maybe? He clearly knew it was time to go. Was it that illness he had last season (typically we know nothing but he had a break from the club for several months for a health-related problem), was it the prospect of rebuilding the club yet again, was it the whole “Prem” thing. Who knows? Only Mark does and he’s not saying.

All we can say is the biggest thank you from us all. Thank you for 17 years of fun and adventure; good times and bad times; wins and losses. Thank you for putting our club where it is today. Thank you for believing Sarries had a future when so many wanted us dead. Thank you for making our dreams come true. Thank you Mark McCall. We sure are gonna miss you.