Saracens head coach Joe Shaw has refused to say when, or if, director of rugby Brendan Venter will speak to the media again, despite the club facing fines for him not doing so.

Venter was not at Wednesday’s pre-match press conference for their forthcoming game with Sale after not attending Prem Rugby’s pre-season launch day, or doing any media duties before, during or after the opening-weekend victory at Leicester.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Venter had “resigned” as director of rugby and taken up a new role as “head of rugby culture and wine consultant“, but this has not been confirmed by the club nor Prem Rugby.

When asked if Venter would resume media duties, as part of his responsibilities as a director of rugby, Shaw said: “I’m just going to talk about the rugby.

“I’ll leave the club to talk about where we stand on all those kind of things.”

BBC Sport has contacted Saracens for comment.

It is understood Sarries have already been fined £5,000 after Venter was not present at the Prem’s pre-season launch day.

It is also thought a change of job title would not preclude Venter from his contractual responsibilities.

Saracens announced in January that Venter would be returning as director of rugby and have yet to publicly confirm any change to his day-to-day responsibilities.

He succeeded Mark McCall, who stepped down at the end of last season after 15 years in the job.

Shaw confirmed that centre Olly Hartley broke his arm in Sunday’s 40-38 win at Leicester.

Hartley, who required full knee reconstruction after a serious injury sustained in a match against Gloucester in April 2024, came off 13 minutes into the match at Welford Road.

Sarries were already 14-0 up but the next 13 minutes after Hartley’s injury saw the hosts reduce the deficit to 14-12.

“When you play and train with somebody, like they have been with Olly for so long, and then it’s the first game of the season and someone gets properly hurt, breaks their arm, you’re human beings, it affects you,” Shaw said.

“We managed to to shuffle things around really calmly, with good leadership from the people on the pitch, and it was really pleasing to get through that adversity.”