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Billy Vunipola the only England international picked by Saracens to face Ealing

By PA
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Billy Vunipola is the only England international participating in Saracens’ first match since their relegation from the Gallagher Premiership last season.

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Vunipola starts Saturday’s Trailfinders Challenge Cup opener against Ealing at number eight but his colleagues from Eddie Jones’ squad, such as Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Jamie George, are missing from the 23.

Scotland centre Duncan Taylor is present in midfield, while Wales scrum-half Aled Davies and South Africa prop Vincent Koch are also involved.

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Referee JP Doyle joins Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson on RugbyPass Offload

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Referee JP Doyle joins Simon Zebo and Ryan Wilson on RugbyPass Offload

The Trailfinders Challenge Cup, which is completed by Doncaster Knights, is a round-robin competition that will take place over six weeks and serves as a curtain raiser to the Green King IPA Championship.

Saturday’s clash in west London will be the weekend’s only game involving English clubs because of the two-week break created by the cancellation of the final rounds of European group action because of coronavirus safety fears.

Saracens were relegated from the Premiership as punishment for repeated salary cap breaches and launch their campaign for an immediate return to the top flight on March 6.

SARACENS (vs Ealing, Saturday) 
15 Elliott Obatoyinbo
14 Ben Harris
13 Dom Morris
12 Duncan Taylor
11 Rotimi Segun
10 Will Hooley
9 Aled Davies
1 Eroni Mawi
2 Tom Woolstencroft (capt)
3 Vincent Koch
4 Jon Kpoku
5 Ollie Stonham
6 Janco Venter
7 Andy Christie
8 Billy Vunipola
Replacements
16 Kapeli Pifeleti
17 Sam Crean
18 Josh Ibuanokpe
19 Llewelyn Jones
20 Callum Hunter-Hill
21 Tom Whiteley
22 Harry Sloan
23 Charlie Watson

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R
RedWarriors 34 minutes ago
How Dupont-less France tossed a grenade into Ireland's Grand Slam celebrations

We conceded 42 we lost by 15. The intercept was a 14 pointer. Ramos doesn’t do that its a try under the posts. But France can do that. The victory over Italy did not get the credit it deserved in my opinion. That was less about Italy reverting to bad old days and more about French brilliance.

I just think credit is due to France for keeping Ireland scoreless in the first 20.

Ireland had chances but we haven’t been clinical inside opponents 22.

The disparity in lineout success was also huge.

Not only are France ahead of Ireland in lineout stats but in that stat is a lot of their throws to the back of the lineout. Ireland have had problems since before the world cup. Something is wrong there and we need a new lineout coach: there I said it.

In all the set pieces and in every stat, France were better than Ireland leading into the match. I had hoped home advantage or coming up against a quality team might show an equalization of those numbers but that didn’t happen.

France’s defense and clinicalness were immense and the latter heaped major pressure and scoreboard pressure on Ireland. When the 2nd LBB try went in it was clear to all that the match was out of reach. The Dynamic Toulouse forwards were on, Ireland were tired from chasing the match.

I think without the Lowe injury it might have become more of a classic match, but really only one winner. Even the first try, Atonio and a friend take a step out beyond the maul. Means Nash has to go around them to cover the blind side. Not illegal, just accurate and clever. A lot of Irish accuracy in their match.


Lastly a stat i’d love to see is tries per line break in a match. Toulouse were above the 50% against Leicester. France are not far off that this year barring the outlier England match. What France/Toulouse are doing after a line break now ti achieve such a high conversion rate bears more looking at.

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