Saracens head coach Wayne Shelford has made four changes to the team that beat Colomiers in the home leg of Round 2 of the PARKER PEN CHALLENGE CUP. Tim Horan comes in for Ben Johnston, the centre taking time off for quick repairs, while Brett Sparg and Thomas Castaignede both retain their positions after impressing last weekend.
In the forwards Shelford has signalled an abrasive intent by bringing in Craig Quinnell and Stuart Hooper and moving Abdel Benazzi to blindside, at the expense of Tony Roques, and Kris Chesney to No. 8, allowing Richard Hill to revert to his favoured open side role.
On the bench Roques is joined by Yandell while Tom Shanklin makes a welcome return after overcoming the injury picked up with Wales last month. In all 23 players will travel to France, to allow for any mishaps between now and Saturday evening, with the final squad confirmed an hour before kick off.
"We're going over to win on Saturday night," explained Wayne. "It's that simple. No fancy mathematics about scoring margins, we just need a win and that's it. Having TimHoran back gives us a bit more shape and experience in midfield and hopefully gives us the balance to finish off the tries that went begging last week and with Tom Shanklin returning it also gives us options from the bench.
"Basically in the forwards I've gone for the biggest pack I've got moving Benazzi to blindside and Richard Hill to open. We want to shunt them around like they did to us in the second half last Sunday but do it for a whole game and I'm hoping that we'll have the edge in fitness to do that."
Saracens: A Winnan; B Sparg, K Sorrell, T Horan, D O'Mahony; T Castaignede, K Bracken; C Califano, M Cairns, J Marsters, C Quinnell, S Hooper, A benazzi, R Hill, K Chesney Replacements: J Ross, J Parkes, C Yandell, T Roques, M Williams, T Shanklin, A Goode