• Joe Marler says squad has been open in discussing club’s saga• Owen Farrell and Mako Vunipola invited airing of any ‘beef’
England’s players insist they have now dealt with the “elephant in the room” despite the latest sanction doled out to Saracens for salary cap offences. The relegation-bound champions are now guaranteed to finish bottom of the Premiership but prop Joe Marler insists the squad’s Six Nations campaign will be unaffected.
Marler’s club Harlequins have been among the more outspoken critics of Saracens’ conduct but, while there remains plenty of banter on the subject, the mood at the team’s Portuguese training base has been more conciliatory. He said: “The longer those conversations or any sort of resentment towards it goes on will detract from what we are trying to achieve here as an
England team.