Jackson Wray, the affable, unsung hero of Saracens’ ascent to the pinnacle of English and European rugby, seems an unlikely hate figure. One of the best players never to receive a full England cap despite a decade of consistent excellence that elevated him to the club captaincy, if anything Wray – now retired – has been hugely underappreciated.
But his presence at Saracens during a period in which they flattened all comers before being found to be in serious breach of salary cap rules has made him a lightning rod for lingering resentment. Earlier this year, the 33-year-old was targeted by fans of another Premiership club who, like him, had made the trip to Edinburgh for England’s Six Nations match with Scotland.
“It is frustrating, because even now you get comments every now and then,” Wray tells City A.M. “Things like ‘You cheated’ and ‘How is the house?’, and it is not a nice feeling. But when you step back and look at it in the backdrop of the past few years it paints a different picture.”
The backdrop that Wray is talking about is the demise of Wasps, London Irish and Worcester, three Premiership clubs who went bust in the space of nine months between 2022 and 2023. Without exonerating Saracens, he believes that English rugby got its priorities wrong by throwing the book at them while failing to prevent historic teams being run into the ground.
“That’s my frustration, that the game spends so much time talking about Saracens and what happened, but nowhere near enough time about governance in the game, making sure that owners aren’t putting clubs in jeopardy – which can mean that they cease to exist,” he says.
“They spent a lot of money after the Saracens mistake making sure that people stayed within the salary cap. If they spent more time looking at clubs being adequately capitalised and doing it in a sustainable way, we’d likely still have three clubs and the jobs attached.
“I’m not saying what Saracens did was right. It wasn’t. But there has to be some balance around the impact of not having Wasps at the professional level anymore, not having London Irish and Worcester. The impact to the players, staff, charities and the communities is huge.”
While accepting that Saracens broke rules when then-owner Nigel Wray (no relation) helped fund players’ businesses and properties – off-book benefits that triggered the salary cap breach and relegation in 2020 – their former skipper insists the club’s policy of investing in people has prepared them for life after rugby – and been a net positive for the wider game.
Saracens famously pushed all players to develop off-field interests, whether academic or entrepreneurial. The result is alumni in the England coaching set-up, the world of podcasts, and more start-ups than an episode of Dragons’ Den, from craft breweries to leadership consultancies, coffee to physiotherapy and CBD products.
“Everywhere you look, people are out there achieving,” says Wray. “Whether that’s come from making people study or helping them with joint ventures, they have gone on to achieve amazing things. If you can name another club that’s probably got half of that, I’d be amazed.”
He adds: “Saracens made a mistake and we were punished for that. But the investment made by Nigel Wray and Saracens into English rugby has been beneficial for all; the league, communities, schools and even the economy.”
As he was beginning a career that would bring him 300 appearances, five Premiership titles and three Champions Cups, Jackson Wray began a psychology degree in his spare time but soon gravitated towards the business world. It was a natural progression, then, to join the City and boutique asset manager Dowgate Wealth after he hung up his boots last summer.
Wray helped Saracens win the Premiership in his final season and now works in the City
“I’m taking all the skills I learned in rugby into dealing with challenges, overcoming things, because that’s what’s going on here as well,” he says. “We don’t have the biggest resources so you’re finding ways to achieve something, which at the start of the Sarries journey was that – a group of people coming together to enjoy what you’re doing and make something happen.”
Wray is also involved with old colleague Will Fraser’s leadership organisation 100 & First and dabbles in media, but mostly he is at Dowgate, which he credits with giving him “purpose” and avoiding a difficult post-retirement transition common in elite sport. “Most people come out of rugby and struggle for a year or two because they haven’t found that ‘why’ yet,” he says.
Work life has brought new acquaintances, many of whom can’t resist asking about rugby – and one topic in particular. “Always people ask about the salary cap, what it was like. And I just think about meetings we had between the senior players and the board, and being in a pub in St Albans and thinking ‘Right, what’s gonna go on here now? Because we could have been gone.”
Jackson Wray credits former Saracens owner Nigel Wray with saving the club after relegation
Wray gives huge credit to his namesake and former boss Nigel for helping Saracens weather the sporting and financial storm. Having bounced back to the top flight in 2021, they completed the comeback arc by winning the Premiership Final last season. It also justified Wray’s decision months earlier to retire at the end of the campaign, which he admits was “ballsy”.
“Seeing Nigel at that game – after all that he went through personally, financially, in the media, you name it – to see him with it [the trophy] again at the end was the last piece of puzzle I needed. If we didn’t win I’d have been gutted,” Wray says. “It was a bold call to retire – I didn’t know what I was going into – but in hindsight it was the right one.”