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Saracens deploy 9 internationals in 27-man matchday line-up for Coventry

19 Feb 2021

Alex Lewington /Getty

Saracens will deploy nine internationals in their 27-man matchday team to host Coventry in the hope of landing their second pre-season win since being relegated from the Gallagher Premiership last Autumn.

England Saxon Alex Lewington, Scotland international Sean Maitland and veteran back row Jackson Wray all return to start in the home fixture at the StoneX Stadium.

Saracens bested Doncaster Knights 29 – 10 following two consecutive losses to Ealing Trailfinders in the Trailfinders Challenge Cup, a pre-season friendly competition ahead of the return of the Green King IPA Championship.

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Callum Hunter-Hill remains at blindside for the fixture, with Andy Christie at No.8, while Wales scrumhalf Aled Davies partners with standoff Manu Vunipola at 9 and 10 respectively. Springbok Vincent Koch joins Richard Barrington and Tom Woolstencroft in a formidable front row. England U20s star Joel Kpoku joins Scotland’s Tim Swinson in a heavyweight locking partnership.

Scotland centre Duncan Taylor and joins high flying Dom Morris in the centres, while Elliott Obatoyinbo starts at fullback.

The starting fifteen includes five Test internationals, with a further four on the bench in the shape of Kapeli Pifeleti, Will Hooley, Juan Pablo Socino and Eroni Mawi.

SARACENS TEAM:
15 Elliott Obatoyinbo
14 Alex Lewington
13 Dom Morris
12 Duncan Taylor
11 Sean Maitland
10 Manu Vunipola
9 Aled Davies
1 Richard Barrington
2 Tom Woolstencroft (CAPTAIN)
3 Vincent Koch
4 Joel Kpoku
5 Tim Swinson
6 Callum Hunter-Hill
7 Jackson Wray
8 Andy Christie

REPLACEMENTS:
16 Kapeli Pifeleti
17 Sam Crean
18 Josh Ibuanokpe
19 Ollie Stonham
20 Sean Reffell
21 Alex Day
22 Tom Whiteley
23 Juan Pablo Socino
Will Hooley (no number)
Ethan Benson (no number)
Ben Harris (no number)
Eroni Mawi (no number)

COVENTRY:
15 Louis Brown
14 Tom Emery
13 Rob Knox
12 Tony Fenner
11 Callum Sirker
10 Kieran Wilkinson
9 Josh Barton
1 Luc Jeannot
2 Nic Dolly
3 James Harper
4 Nile Dacres
5 Alex Woolford
6 Sam Lewis
7 Ben Nutley
8 Ryan Burrows (capt)

REPLACEMENTS
Suva Ma’asi, Toby Trinder, Phil Boulton, Cameron Jordan, Adam Peters, Senitiki Nayalo, Pete White, Dan Lewis, Will Owen, Andy Forsyth, Louis James, Tom Hudson

Kick-off is 3pm.

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Comments on RugbyPass

Spew_81 23 minutes ago

Stat chat: Clear favourite emerges as Sam Cane's All Blacks successor

Specialists on the bench are useful when you can make eight replacements. If/when the number of replacements is reduced (possibly before RWC 2027) that will immediately change. World Rugby has consistently stated that they want a more flowing game with less time wasting, to allow fatigue to play a role; reducing the bench numbers will mean players are more likely to be fatigued. The All Blacks coaches need to be building a team for RWC 2027. In doing that they need to anticipate potential rule changes.

If the bench size, or number of replacements is reduced. It will make it more difficult for one position specialists to force their way into the team.

33 Go to comments

Spew_81 25 minutes ago

Stat chat: Clear favourite emerges as Sam Cane's All Blacks successor

Agree for Savea to be successful at 7 he will have to remodel his game, again. But he has shown the ability to do that with his move from 7 to 8. Savea will have to focus more on the roles of a 7 e.g. tacking and cleaning out. The benefit will be that Savea can take advantage of running opportunities, in a similar way that Michael Jones used to. How Savea is used e.g. as a primary runner, or as a support runner will come down to the attack coach. But having a 7 who is a genuine running option will provide the All Blacks with another option. That option could be unutilized as a support runner. If put into the gap Savea will be very hard to stop.

With Sititi at 8 (the best position to make use of his skills) the key will be who is chosen at 6, ideally someone with bulk and a hard work ethic. S Barrett could fulfil that role. I would choose Finau as he has proven ability to effect very heavy tackles. But it’s an open race at the moment.

Agree, taking in account multiple factors in analysis makes the analysis a lot more difficult. There are so many more potential outcomes to take into account. Getting this done in time to meet publishing deadlines would be difficult. I guess it’s up to the readers to speculate on things like that.

Papali’I is definitely in the conversation. He is a proven high volume tackler, at times he has shown a very useful running game. Also, at 1.93m/113kg he has the size to cover at 6 and to be used as a jumper in the lineout. With the Blues in a slump, how he performs in the next few games could be a good indicator, if he steps up he could regain a black jersey.

Sotutu could be used at 6 or eight. If the trio contained Sotutu I’d put him at 6 as Sititi seems to be a more slightly more elusive runner that is slightly better at setting up others. Sotutu could fit into the trio at 6. A key work on for Sotutu is to lower his tackle height.

33 Go to comments

Cantab 35 minutes ago

Will Jordan 'wasn't too happy' with Macca Springer's five tries vs Force

I did overlook Ennors contribution. He was instrumental in overcoming the Forces sometimes offside rush defence and the extra space he created enabled his outsides to shine

5 Go to comments

GP 52 minutes ago

Will Jordan 'wasn't too happy' with Macca Springer's five tries vs Force

Well said. Having Braydon Ennor at centre and playing like that adds another dimension too. He is so quick and his passing to his outsides is lethal. Having Braydon feeding those 3 makes our attack even more dangerous.

5 Go to comments

JC 52 minutes ago

France's Peato Mauvaka cited for yellow-carded Ben White incident

He reeks of self pity and is a walking contradiction. He’d be better off keeping his mouth shut last week as his silence this week in the Mauvaka incident is deafening.

6 Go to comments

Pranav Ram 57 minutes ago

Ireland player ratings vs France | 2025 Six Nations

The GainBitcoin scam saw me lose all my hard-earned money after my investment in this scam.

After many weeks of trying to get justice and working with the authorities, I saw a post about HackMetrix on the internet about crypto recovery.

I contacted HackMetrix via (HackMetrix@cyberservices.com) who asked me to provide the necessary information and proof. Hackmetrix recovered my crypto funds from GainBitcoin, and all this happened within 72 hours of contacting HackMetrix.

If you were among those victims of the GainBitcoin scam, you should contact HackMetrix immediately for crypto recovery

You can reach them with the following details:

Email:hackmetrix@cyberservices.com

WhatsApp:+1 872361 6523

361 Go to comments

JC 58 minutes ago

France's Peato Mauvaka cited for yellow-carded Ben White incident

Are you trying to compare an accidental unfortunate clear out to an intentional diving headbutt???

6 Go to comments

Pranav Ram 58 minutes ago

Ireland player ratings vs France | 2025 Six Nations

The GainBitcoin scam saw me lose all my hard-earned money after my investment in this scam.

After many weeks of trying to get justice and working with the authorities, I saw a post about HackMetrix on the internet about crypto recovery.

If you were among those victims of the GainBitcoin scam, you should contact HackMetrix immediately for crypto recovery

You can reach them with the following details:

Email:hackmetrix@cyberservices.com

WhatsApp:+1 872361 6523

361 Go to comments

FF 1 hour ago

The story of Romania's Marianei Lucescu: The Stejarii ‘Madame Rugby’

It’s Mariana, not Marianei.

Marianei is used in Romanian as the genitive-dative form of Mariana, indicating possession or an indirect object, but in English, it would still be Mariana.

3 Go to comments

BH 1 hour ago

France's Peato Mauvaka cited for yellow-carded Ben White incident

Checks all the criteria for a red card and a lengthy ban. Compare this to other incidents where there are accidental tackles to the head and it’s a complete and utter farce.

Rugby officials need a hard look at themselves and be more consistent. Otherwise we’ll have more and more important games ruined by bad refereeing decisions, e.g. tournament finals or series deciders.

No word from “Welding Glasses” Galthie yet!?

6 Go to comments

JW 1 hour ago

Statement win in Auckland gives Brumbies tools for Super Rugby success

The end of Irelands unbeaten streak and good 6N performances will be dropping off the ranking period.

Always going to happen with so many stars getting on though. The real critical factor will be whether they’ve brought through the next generation in 6 years time and can use this golden period as a step to becoming one of the best rugby nations in the world.

16 Go to comments

fl 2 hours ago

Mick Cleary: Five non-negotiables England need to display against Italy

astonishingly bad comment.

England give lots of opportunities to young players - just not always the players you’ve rather randomly decided that they should.

Arundell was untrusted because he was poor in every match he started (apart from against Chile).

literally all rules are artificial. That’s kinda baked into the definition of rules. The England eligibility rules are good though.

28 Go to comments

PT 2 hours ago

'France may leave top players at home but will still be serious contenders in New Zealand'

Very well written, I concur 100%

4 Go to comments