Saracens are at risk of further fines and punishment from the Premiership over the “wine consultant” role adopted by the London club’s director of rugby Brendan Venter, The i Paper understands.

Venter stuck to his stance of swerving media duties on the behalf of the club on Wednesday afternoon, with Saracens’ head coach Joe Shaw fronting the regular midweek press conference in the South African’s place.

The Prem’s commercial regulations state the person who takes those press conferences, and who speaks to the media including TV before and after matches, should be the one who is in overall charge of team affairs.

It is understood the Prem continue to regard Venter as that person, despite Saracens stating Venter’s job title had changed from “director of rugby” to “head of rugby culture and wine consultant” so he could avoid mandatory appearances.

This points to further punishment being possible after on Tuesday reported that Saracens had been fined £5,000 fine for Venter failing to fulfil media duties.

But observers at last Sunday’s season-opening win away to Leicester Tigers said Venter – a vastly experienced coach and former player who returned to Saracens in the summer to start his second full-time stint at the club – appeared to be operating in a senior role.

Shaw on Wednesday said he was taking questions only about the state of the team ahead of Sunday’s second-round home match against Sale Sharks.

Asked who is ultimately responsible for team selection, Shaw said: “We all are. We do things differently here. Whatever gets debated in our [coaches’] room gets debated with everybody. There is no ‘I’, it’s just ‘we’. There is not a guy at the very top.”

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The Prem’s commercial regulations are not publicly available, but they cover everything from car parking for TV broadcast trucks to attendance at Prem publicity events.

There are several reasons for the media duties to fall to a clearly designated spokesperson at each of the 10 Prem clubs – one who is recognised as having the ability and authority to speak about a range of subjects.

The long-standing regulations are common throughout sport and reflect in part a responsibility to the wider world of rugby, including supporters of Saracens and rival clubs, the league in which they play, and the sport in general.

It is not merely a case of giving a midweek update on hamstring injuries – although when a club like Saracens has England’s recent captains Maro Itoje and Jamie George and a large number if other high-profile players on the books, these carry a heavy weight, too.

This is also a time when Prem Rugby is fighting for credibility after a troubling financial period, and competing for precious space in the sports media landscape.

Venter is one of the league’s most storied characters, with interesting rugby ideas, and well worth hearing from.

One possible topic would have been the comments by ex-Saracens centre Alex Lozowski, now at Sale, saying on Tuesday that Sarries assistant coach Adam Powell had credited Venter with a plan this season to “change the way the game is played, to change the way that attack is dominating and be the ones to flip the script and be trendsetters, making defence important to people again.”

External critics have pointed to Saracens’ history of flouting the salary cap, for which they were punished in 2019, adding to the imperative of being as open as possible with their fans and the wider public.

A Saracens fans’ forum was told on Tuesday night that Venter – now nicknamed “Brendan Vintner” by one wag online – re-took the director of rugby job on the basis he would not be doing media interviews.

Some fans have supported the club’s stance, while others say they are keen to hear from Venter, not least as they wish to know how long his second spell is going to last.

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The club last season leaned into an edgy stance of PR, dubbing themselves “The Original Club of North London”, and trolling opponents on social media with stunts such as stamping on a can of Red Bull after a win over Newcastle.

It has been a time of change behind the scenes, with new appointments as chief executive and marketing boss in recent weeks.

But the long-serving director of rugby Mark McCall, who stood down in the summer, remains as a consultant, and was present at training on Wednesday.