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Picking a Saracens - Exeter Chiefs composite XV
By Ian Cameron
It’s been over a year since Exeter Chiefs and Saracens last faced off in the Gallagher Premiership, and one suspects that the Londoner's sojourn to the RFU Championship hasn't made the heart grow fonder on either side of the equation.
It all makes for a mouthwatering contest at Sandy Park.
Here we select a composite XV made of the two sides that are lining out this weekend, and despite Saracens' slightly superior form in the competition to date, the Chiefs edge it eight selections to seven.
15 MAX MALINS
Hogg, who will be lining out against England's Max Malins this weekend has brought very decent Autumn Nations Series form back to the Gallagher Premiership, but is just pipped by the superb Malins to the 15 jersey. Malins is the competition's leading try-scorer with eight to his name this season.
14 JACK NOWELL
Although he hasn't featured for England since 2019, Nowell has shown he's still a force to be reckoned with the Gallagher Premiership. Picked ahead of Alex Lewington.
13 HENRY SLADE
Starting to find the form at international level that his Premiership performances have promised. He edges Lozowski, who has found himself regularly deployed in the centre since his return from Montpellier.
12 NICK TOMPKINS
Another tight call over 34-year-old Ian Whitten, who has been excellent for Chiefs in his nine years at the club. Since moving back to Saracens from the Dragons, Tompkins' tireless work rate and ability to make things happen around him, win this call.
11 TOM O'FLAHERTY
Elliot Daly hasn't played any rugby since the Lions, so it's impossible to justify his inclusion ahead of the O'Flaherty, who was among Chiefs' form backs last season.
10 JOE SIMMONDS
Simmonds is recalled at fly-half in the only change to the back line from that which took to the field at The Rec. Somehow not involved in the England 10 debate, although his trophy cabinet might beg to differ.
9 ALED DAVIES
Saracens Aled Davies beats Jack Maunder to the No.9 spot. Maunder has gone under the radar a bit since winning a single England cap in 2019, but remains a favourite of Rob Baxter. Hard to separate these two, but Davies' sharp form so far this season wins the day.
1 MAKO VUNIPOLA
Another one of Eddie Jones' England omissions, despite excellent Premiership form. The Lions loosehead's omission from the Autumn Nations Series was sorely missed, not least given the hammering they took at the hands of the Springboks in the competition finale. He is selected ahead of Chiefs' Alec Hepburn.
2 LUKE COWAN-DICKIE
England and British and Irish Lions hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie returns to Chiefs side after several weeks out and makes the cut ahead of Saracens' Welsh loanee Ethan Lewis.
3 VINCENT KOCH
Mr Bombsquad was a huge cog in both the Rugby Championship and the end of year tour for the Springboks, and would make most world team's at tighthead - with the exception of Ireland. He's chosen over the relatively inexperienced Kiwi Josh Iosefa-Scott.
4 MARO ITOJE
A tough call for Scotland international Jonny Gray, although Itoje's form on the world stage continues to impress, even if he isn't quite pulling up trees in 2021. Gray's excellence goes unrewarded here.
5 JONNY HILL
An outwardly relaxed sort, the career trajectory of the freshly minted Lion seems to be one of constant improvement. Saracens' Nick Isiekwe - who spent a year at Northampton Saints last season - has seemingly fallen out of favour with England, having not added to his three caps since 2018.
6 DAVE EWERS
The giant back row's effort may not have earned him international honours but this hulking forward's sheer brutality wins the day over Saracens veteran Jackson Wray.
7 BEN EARL
At the start of 2021 it seemed like Earl appeared to be on route to cementing a permanent role in England, but he has become a victim of immense back row depth at Test level. His explosiveness gets him the nod ahead of the superb Don Armand.
8 SAM SIMMONDS
After a few decent cameos on the Lions tour after a clamour for his inclusion, the compact Simmonds locks down the pack at No.8, having carries his fantastic form into 2021/22. It's hard call on Billy Vunipola, who it's become popular to criticise. The giant No.8 has been excellent for Saracens this season, even if he isn't quite flavour of the month.
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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