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Earl included as Saracens name extended 32-man squad for Ulster

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Saracens boss Mark McCall has chosen to bring a 32-strong squad with him to face Ulster in Belfast on Friday night in a pre-season friendly just two weeks before the Londoners play their first match back in the Gallagher Premiership on September 17.

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The newly-promoted Championship title winners are set to travel to Bristol in a fortnight’s time as top-flight title favourites for the new 2021/22 league season in England and McCall is using the first of two friendly matches against his old club Ulster to run through his non-Lions tour options before taking on Pat Lam’s Bears at Ashton Gate.

Friday’s game in front of 10,000 fans in Belfast will see Ben Earl, Nick Isiekwe and Alex Lozowski all in line to play for Saracens for the first time since their respective season-long loans at Bristol, Northampton and Montpellier, deals arranged while the Londoners spent a season outside the Premiership.

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    Springboks No8 Duane Vermeulen on the injury that kept him out of the recent Lions series

    Club debuts are also in the pipeline for a trio of new signings – prop Marco Riccioni, second row Theo McFarland and scrum-half Ivan van Zyl after McCall selected an extended squad featuring 19 forwards and 13 backs. Ben Harris, the recent Team GB Tokyo Olympian, is also included after he recently agreed to a long-term deal following his 7s stint.

    “We are excited at the prospect of playing again and in front of such a vibrant crowd as is always the case when you play Ulster,” said McCall. “It’s an opportunity for our players, on the back of five weeks of hard work, to test themselves against quality opposition and to gain crucial match fitness as we edge towards the start of the Premiership.

    “It’s great to have our players who were out on loan last season back in our playing squad, as well as some players who are new to the club who will form a big part of our future.” Following Friday’s match, Saracens will host Ulster next Thursday at the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) in London.

    SARACENS SQUAD (vs Ulster)
    Forwards: Ralph Adams-Hale, Harvey Beaton, Andy Christie, Alec Clarey, Sam Crean, Ben Earl, Callum Hunter-Hill, Nick Isiekwe, Joel Kpoku, Ethan Lewis, Eroni Mawi, Theo McFarland, Sean Reffell, Marco Riccioni, Tim Swinson, Janco Venter, Billy Vunipola, Tom Woolstencroft, Jackson Wray (joint capt);
    Backs: Aled Davies, Alex Goode (joint capt), Ben Harris, Alex Lewington, Alex Lozowski, Sean Maitland, Dom Morris, Elliott Obatoyinbo, Rotimi Segun, Nick Tompkins, Manu Vunipola, Ivan van Zyl, Charlie Watson.

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    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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