Two of the top four clubs from last year’s Aviva Premiership meet at Franklins Garden (Saturday 3pm) at Northampton Saints take on Saracens.
Northampton have been one of the teams worst affected by the World Cup call ups but are bolstered by the return of Tom Wood and Vasily Artemyev (Russia) to the starting line up along with Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes to a bench that already boasts the Tongan power house Soane Tonga’uiha.
Director of rugby Jim Mallinder is making the most of several World Cup returnees and injury comebacks by naming a strong match squad for Saturday's LV= Cup Round 1 clash with Saracens.
“No one wants to leave a tournament early, but it also means that we have more time to integrate the players back into the club environment ahead of the next rounds of Premiership matches and then the Heineken Cup,” he said. “This makes tomorrow’s game important for us.
“We want to get a good start in the LV= Cup, continue the momentum that we got from the promising performance against Exeter last week, and give players some game time in a Saints shirt for the first time since the end of last season.
“It is good that we will have a game against a team as competitive as Saracens. Their players are all ambitious to succeed and with plenty of depth across every position they have a squad that can certainly compete with anyone in the competition. It won’t matter what team they put out tomorrow, it will be a tough game for us.”
The Saracens side is barely recognisable from the one that beat Newcastle a week ago, only four players are retained. Jamie George captains the side that welcomes back Kameli Ratuvou for the first time in nearly a year after a knee injury. The Fiji international makes up the centre pairing with Adam Powell with Nils Mordt and Ben Spencer forming the halfback partnership. In the forwards, Hugh Vyvyan makes his first start of the season
The Saracens side is barely recognisable from the one that beat Newcastle a week ago, only four players are retained. Jamie George captains the side that welcomes back Kameli Ratuvou for the first time in nearly a year after a knee injury. The Fiji international makes up the centre pairing with Adam Powell with Nils Mordt and Ben Spencer forming the halfback partnership. In the forwards, Hugh Vyvyan makes his first start of the season
Northampton Saints: 15.Greig Tomks, 14.Jamie Elliot, 13.Scott Armstrong, 12.Tom May (capt), 11.Vasily Artemyev, 10.Ryan Lamb, 9.Martin Roberts, 1.Alex Waller, 2 Mike Haywood, 3.Tom Mercey, 4.James Craig, 5.Mark Sorenson, 6.Tom Wood, 7.Ben Nutley, 8.Roger Wilson
Replacements: 16.Dylan Hartley, 17.Soane Tonga’uiha, 18.Paul Doran Jones,19.Courtney Lawes, 20.Adam Eustace, 21.Lee Dickson, 22.Stephen Myler, 22.Cesar Sempere
Saracens: 15.Ben Ransom, 14.Joe Maddock, 13.Kameli Ratuvou, 12.Adam Powell, 11.Duncan Taylor, 10 Nils Mordt, 9.Ben Spencer, 1.Deon Carstens, 2.Jamie George (capt), 3 .Petrus du Plessis, 4.George Kruis, 5.Hugh Vyvyan, 6.Justin Melck, 7.Andy Saull, 8.Jackson Wray
Replacements: 16.Harry Allen, 17.Nick Auterac, 18.Mako Vunipola, 19.Hayden Smith, 20.Will Fraser, 21 Luke Baldwin, 22.Rodd Penney, 23.James Short
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