Mark McCall commits long term future to Saracens by signing contract extension

Saracens head coach Mark McCall has committed his long term future to the club by signing a reported three-year contract extension with the recently crowned Premiership champions.

McCall has won four premiership titles and two European Cups with Saracens and he will continue to serve as the club's Director of Rugby. McCall's backroom staff have also agreed to new deals with the club with Phil Morrow, Alex Sanderson, Kevin Sorrell, Joe Shaw, Ian Peel and Dan Vickers all extending their contracts with Sarries. Chairman Nigel Wray said: “It’s great news that they have all re-signed. They’re a team within a team; a group of friends together - they’re my friends.” McCall would have been seen as a possible replacement for Ireland coach Joe Schmidt should he fail to renew his contract with the IRFU after the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Schmidt has been openly courted by New Zealand with All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen set to step down from his role as head coach at the end of next year's tournament. New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Tew said last summer that Schmidt would be among their options to replace Hansen. “You’d have to ask Joe if he wants to apply for the job, but he’s obviously a very good coach,” said Tew.

“We’ve kept in contact with Joe about the job, like we’ve kept in touch with Vern Cotter and others. Where do I start and stop? There’s Jamie Joseph, there’s Warren Gatland, there’s Pat Lam and others and we will consider a number of options. Joe is among those options.

“We’ll be having a conversation with our board in the second half of this year about the process that will run. Then we’ll make that known to everybody once it’s done and dusted.”