Saracens director Brendan Venter absent from pre-match press conference; Joe Shaw declines to discuss media duties

Brendan Venter did not attend Wednesday's pre-match press conference ahead of Saracens' forthcoming game with Sale, and head coach Joe Shaw declined to say when, or if, Venter will speak to the media again. The club is facing fines over Venter's refusal to undertake media duties.

Venter had also been absent from Prem Rugby's pre-season launch day and did not carry out media obligations before, during or after Saracens' opening-weekend victory at Leicester. The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Venter had "resigned" as director of rugby and taken up a new role as "head of rugby culture and wine consultant", but neither the club nor Prem Rugby have confirmed that report. Saracens announced in January that Venter would be returning as director of rugby and have yet to publicly confirm any change to his day-to-day responsibilities. It is understood Sarries have already been fined £5,000 after Venter was not present at the Prem's pre-season launch day, and it is also thought a change of job title would not preclude Venter from his contractual responsibilities.

Asked whether Venter would resume media duties, Shaw said: "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." BBC Sport has contacted Saracens for comment.

Shaw confirmed centre Olly Hartley broke his arm in Sunday's 40-38 win at Leicester. Hartley, who required full knee reconstruction after a serious injury sustained in a match against Gloucester in April 2024, came off 13 minutes into the match at Welford Road. Sarries were already 14-0 up but the next 13 minutes after Hartley's injury saw the hosts reduce the deficit to 14-12.

On the impact of Hartley's injury, Shaw said: "When you play and train with somebody, like they have been with Olly for so long, and then it's the first game of the season and someone gets properly hurt, breaks their arm, you're human beings, it affects you," and added: "We managed to to shuffle things around really calmly, with good leadership from the people on the pitch, and it was really pleasing to get through that adversity."

Saracens proceed to their forthcoming game with Sale with Venter continuing to absent himself from media duties and Olly Hartley facing another period on the sidelines.