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<blockquote data-quote="Prestwick" data-source="post: 344557" data-attributes="member: 13794">Looking back on this thread, I think a lot of this &quot;hate&quot; is overblown and way overhyped. &nbsp;I&#039;ve been on the road with Saracens and I&#039;ve never witnessed any glares or ill will against Saracens fans or the team, we get on well with the other London teams (especially London Irish who are BFFs) and abroad we&#039;ve had epic adventures with the fans of Biarritz and Viadana. &nbsp;Case in point, Saracens fans fly down to Biarritz and get a fantastic welcome from their fans at the airport. Town gets shut down on game weekend and theres tons of fun with games, tug o&#039; war and so on. Again I&#039;ve never seen anything bad and my Dad (who specifically started watching Rugby because he couldn&#039;t stand the yobbish nature of football) hasn&#039;t had a problem with Saracens fans either. &nbsp;I think the worst I&#039;ve seen has been the booing during the Gloucester home game last season but to be fair that was pretty justified because the tactics employed by Saracens were so so so so awful. The second worst was beating Bath away and singing &quot;a-win-away&quot; to the tune of &quot;the lion sleeps tonight&quot; in their clubhouse which while fun was a bit squeamish lol.&nbsp;As for the allegations of racism the less said about that the better. I&#039;ve never heard such rumours and I&#039;ve never seen such antics. Brendan Venter runs several HIV clinics in impoverished townships in South Africa and the team have been to South Africa to build houses and run rugby clinics in the townships. &nbsp;Look, if there is evidence of racism at Saracens then go public. Why is this so hard for some people to understand? What is the point in complaining about it and then when someone says &quot;surely thats libel, have you got anything to back that up with?&quot; mutter excuses about shady backroom deals (i.e. other clubs including Northampton are accomplices to a cover up)? I have a golden rule supporting teams: dont&#039; be one eye&#039;d when your team is doing something seriously wrong so if some people are sure there is racism at Saracens then for gods sake go public or urge those with evidence to go public. &nbsp;As for the &quot;South Africa in London&quot; thing...eh...really? Like really really? Apart from some vague marketing strategy to lure in South Africans from SW London there hasn&#039;t really been any off the field changes to make it..well..South African. No Braais, no Castle lager in place of the Chilterns Real Ale, no sexy Blue Bulls cheerleaders. Nothing. I&#039;m pretty dissapointed to be honest. &nbsp;Look, I&#039;m not saying Sarries are perfect. We play in a dump, we don&#039;t have the temperament yet to win big and Venter&#039;s outbursts earlier in the season has made him a huge target. But at the same time in my time being a fan I&#039;ve had fun and I&#039;ve never had any problems at Watford or on the road and thats the honest truth.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Prestwick, post: 344557, member: 13794"] Looking back on this thread, I think a lot of this "hate" is overblown and way overhyped. I've been on the road with Saracens and I've never witnessed any glares or ill will against Saracens fans or the team, we get on well with the other London teams (especially London Irish who are BFFs) and abroad we've had epic adventures with the fans of Biarritz and Viadana. Case in point, Saracens fans fly down to Biarritz and get a fantastic welcome from their fans at the airport. Town gets shut down on game weekend and theres tons of fun with games, tug o' war and so on. Again I've never seen anything bad and my Dad (who specifically started watching Rugby because he couldn't stand the yobbish nature of football) hasn't had a problem with Saracens fans either. I think the worst I've seen has been the booing during the Gloucester home game last season but to be fair that was pretty justified because the tactics employed by Saracens were so so so so awful. The second worst was beating Bath away and singing "a-win-away" to the tune of "the lion sleeps tonight" in their clubhouse which while fun was a bit squeamish lol. As for the allegations of racism the less said about that the better. I've never heard such rumours and I've never seen such antics. Brendan Venter runs several HIV clinics in impoverished townships in South Africa and the team have been to South Africa to build houses and run rugby clinics in the townships. Look, if there is evidence of racism at Saracens then [B]go public[/B]. Why is this so hard for some people to understand? What is the point in complaining about it and then when someone says "surely thats libel, have you got anything to back that up with?" mutter excuses about shady backroom deals (i.e. other clubs including Northampton are accomplices to a cover up)? I have a golden rule supporting teams: dont' be one eye'd when your team is doing something seriously wrong so if some people are sure there is racism at Saracens then for [B]gods sake go public or urge those with evidence to go public. [/B] As for the "South Africa in London" thing...eh...really? Like really really? Apart from some vague marketing strategy to lure in South Africans from SW London there hasn't really been any off the field changes to make it..well..South African. No Braais, no Castle lager in place of the Chilterns Real Ale, no sexy Blue Bulls cheerleaders. Nothing. I'm pretty dissapointed to be honest. Look, I'm not saying Sarries are perfect. We play in a dump, we don't have the temperament yet to win big and Venter's outbursts earlier in the season has made him a huge target. But at the same time in my time being a fan I've had fun and I've never had any problems at Watford or on the road and thats the honest truth. [/QUOTE]

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