{"id":131304,"date":"2025-10-19T03:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T03:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131304\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T03:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T03:15:09","slug":"saracens-fully-respect-tom-willis-decision-as-england-star-exits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131304\/","title":{"rendered":"Saracens ‘fully respect’ Tom Willis decision as England star exits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saracens number eight Tom Willis will depart the club at the end of the current PREM season to return to the Top 14, the North London club have confirmed.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This follows weeks of speculation over his future, with the back-row forward out of contract with the six-time champions at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Willis joined Saracens at the start of the 2023\/24 season from French giants Bordeaux Begles, who he is rumoured to be rejoining despite interest from Toulouse, and has made 43 appearances to date.<\/p>\n

In that time, he has also become a mainstay in Steve Borthwick\u2019s England<\/a> side, with seven of his eight caps coming since the turn of the year. In that time, he also started five of those Tests, notably taking a starring role in the 2-0 series whitewash over Argentina in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u2018We fully respect his decision to pursue a new challenge in France\u2019<\/p>\n

Commenting on the move, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: \u201cWhilst we are disappointed that Tom will not be extending his time at the club, we fully respect his decision to pursue a new challenge in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has made a great impact on the field and been a popular team-mate off it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he is determined to give everything to the group over the coming months. Everyone at Saracens<\/a> thank Tom for all his efforts in a Saracens jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he was out of contract with the PREM outfit, Willis was among the 25-man group to be awarded an Enhanced EPS contract by Borthwick earlier this year; however, his move to France will make him ineligible to represent the national side come the end of the season.<\/p>\n

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That decision would not have come easy, especially for a player becoming a consistent figure in the starting XV, but Willis insists it is the right decision for him and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was one of the hardest decisions of my life but it\u2019s one that feels right for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve absolutely loved my time at Saracens and have made some friends for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will continue to give everything for this club for the remainder of the season and I\u2019m very excited about what this squad can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Saracens v Sale Sharks: Five takeaways as \u2018freakish\u2019 English prodigy proves \u2018the all-round package\u2019 in rampant win<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saracens number eight Tom Willis will depart the club at the end of the current PREM season to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,4507,794,19,34943,17,5,18144,78805,132,78806,78807],"class_list":{"0":"post-131304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-internationals","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-premiership","16":"tag-saracens","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-steve-borthwick","19":"tag-tom-willis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}