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Saracens call up four of England's RWC final cavalry for Ospreys visit

Owen Farrell, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, George Kruis and Jonny May look dejected after England's World Cup final defeat (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Saracens are set to ramp up their Heineken Champions Cup title defence after including four of England’s World Cup final players in their squad to face Ospreys on Saturday. 

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The defending champions were humbled 10-30 in the opening round last Sunday at Racing, but they have brought in some of their big names to get their campaign up and running at the second attempt. 

Three players who featured in the final in Yokohama against South Africa on November 2 are in the starting XV. They included the debut-making Elliot Daly, who slots in at full-back after making the summer switch from Wasps.

Mako Vunipola lines up at loosehead, George Kruis is chosen at second row while hooker Jamie George makes the bench for the Allianz Park clash which is Saracens’ 100th match in the Champions Cup. 

In total, Mark McCall has changed seven of his starting side following the defeat in Paris in a week where Saracens decided not to appeal their 35-point deduction and £5.3million fine for breaching the Premiership salary cap.   

(Continue reading below…)

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Captain Brad Barritt slots back in at centre after six weeks out and he partners Duncan Taylor who has featured in the previous four games.

Scrum-half Tom Whiteley makes his maiden European start and winger Alex Lewington returns to the back three with Rotimi Segun switching to the right flank.

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There is a fresh look to the front row replacements as George, Richard Barrington and Josh Ibuanokpe are selected following international duty, injury and suspension respectively while academy back row Andy Christie could earn a debut run out in European club rugby’s blue-riband competition.

SARACENS (v Ospreys, Saturday)

15 Elliot Daly; 14 Rotimi Segun, 13 Duncan Taylor, 12 Brad Barritt (capt), 11 Alex Lewington; 10 Manu Vunipola, 9 Tom Whiteley; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jack Singleton, 3 Titi Lamositele, 4 Will Skelton, 5 George Kruis, 6 Nick Isiekwe, 7 Ben Earl, 8 Jackson Wray. Reps: 16 Jamie George, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Josh Ibuanokpe, 19 Joel Kpoku, 20 Andy Christie, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Alex Lozowski, 23 Matt Gallagher.

WATCH: The Rugby Pod gives its reaction to Saracens not appealing the 35-point deduction and fine for breaching Premiership Rugby salary cap regulations

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J
JW 38 minutes ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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LONG READ 'Steve Borthwick hung his troops out to dry - he should take some blame' 'Steve Borthwick hung his troops out to dry - he should take some blame'
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