The comma held. Deep in the third period of drafting, a Saracens press officer dropped it in before "both on and off the pitch", and the home end at StoneX Stadium rose as one.
The club has released academy player Totoa Auvaa after an incident over the weekend. He was the player at the centre of the row that set off the Ben Stokes captaincy crisis. That is a question about who leads English Test cricket, and frankly it can wait.
The drafting was the real contest. Three writers shared one laptop, its screen beamed onto the big screen above the try line. The crowd booed an early "standards expected" as soft and passive, a phrase with no carry. Then a substitute came off the bench with "of everyone who represents Saracens", a colossal piece of phrasing that bought the whole sentence breathing room. Stewards had to clear the aisles.
"You train your whole career for a subordinate clause like that," said a club communications staffer, whose thumbs were still trembling at full time.
England's cricket chiefs are expected to settle the captaincy at some point. First, the TMO (the video referee) wants another look at that comma.
