Brendan Venter refuses to speak to media in protest at Saracens fine

The Saracens director of rugby, Brendan Venter, has temporarily stopped talking to the media after being fined for comments made following last month's Heineken Cup defeat to Leinster. Venter was fined nearly £22,000 , of which £13,000 was suspended until June 2012, after saying that referees in European competition had not been adequately prepared for the new interpretation of the breakdown. "There is a real danger that if we don't take action, going into a World Cup year, the game of rugby is going to die," he said, "because the public won't come to watch." Sarries' first-team coach Mark McCall has handled media duties over the last few weeks and is expected to continue in the role for the foreseeable future. "We feel that we have other people that are capable of acting as a media spokesperson," Saracens' chief executive, Edward Griffiths, told the Watford Observer. "At the moment Brendan is just focusing on speaking to the team. It is just the way forward that we have agreed but nothing is forever." Saracens are understood to be particularly annoyed at the severity of their punishment, given the fines handed out for similar offences in football. In February Steve Bruce, the Sunderland manager, was fined £2,500 for describing the referee Andre Marriner's decision to send off his defender Michael Turner as "obscene", "a joke" and "an outrage". It is not the first time that Venter has caused controversy with his comments about referees. After Saracens' defeat to Leicester on 2 January he suggested that the referee, David Rose, had been influenced at half-time. Only a public apology prevented a subsequent four-week ban.