1
Two British and Irish Lions return to Saracens' starting XV
By Online Editors
Saracens have welcomed back two British and Irish Lions for their clash with Sale Sharks.
Billy Vunipola and Liam Williams will make their return from long-term injuries when Saracens head to the AJ Bell Stadium on Friday night.
Number 8 Vunipola has been absent since breaking his arm against Glasgow Warriors in October while Wales international Williams, who scored in this fixture last year, has been out with a hamstring problem.
David Strettle comes in on the wing after dotting down in his first match in two months last weekend and Richard Wigglesworth has recovered from a groin strain to start at nine.
Continue reading below...
Alongside Vunipola in the pack, prop Vincent Koch is fit to play and is joined in the front row by hooker Tom Woolstencroft with Jamie George rested.
Schalk Burger is reinstated on the flank in Sarries seventh change.
Saracens team to face Sale Sharks at AJ Bell Stadium on Friday 4th January (KO 19H45):
15 Alex Goode
14 Liam Williams
13 Nick Tompkins
12 Alex Lozowski
11 David Strettle
10 Owen Farrell (c)
9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Mako Vunipola
2 Tom Woolstencroft
3 Vincent Koch
4 Will Skelton
5 George Kruis
6 Nick Isiekwe
7 Schalk Burger
8 Billy Vunipola
Replacements
16 Christopher Tolofua
17 Richard Barrington
18 Titi Lamositele
19 Calum Clark
20 Jackson Wray
21 Ben Spencer
22 Marcelo Bosch
23 Sean Maitland
Meanwhile Steve Diamond has named his squad to face Saracens.
The Sale Sharks Director of Rugby has made one personnel change to his Match-day 23 with Scotland International Josh Strauss moving to number 8 in place of Jean Luc Du Preez, who sustained a groin injury during the Sharks emphatic win at Kingsholm last Saturday.
Sharks Academy winger Arron Reed will take up a position on the bench in place of Strauss.
STARTING XV: 15. Chris Ashton, 14. Denny Solomona, 13. James O’Connor, 12. Sam James, 11. Byron McGuigan, 10. Robert Du Preez, 9. Faf De Klerk, 1. Ross Harrison, 2. Rob Webber, 3.Will-Griff John, 4. Josh Beaumont, 5. James Phillips, 6. Jono Ross (Capt.) 7. Tom Curry, 8. Josh Strauss.
REPLACMENTS: 16. Curtis Langdon, 17. Tom Bristow, 18. Joe Jones, 19. Bryn Evans, 20. Ben Curry, 21. Will Cliff, 22. Luke James, 23. Arron Reed.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
Go to comments