Moved to 10: Owen Farrell
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Saracens have moved Owen Farrell from outside centre to fly-half for their Heineken Cup Pool rematch with Munster at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
Both teams are level on match points in Pool 1 and in team news ahead of what will be a near sell-out crowd in Watford, Farrell starts the game at ten, with Joel Tomkins, David Strettle and George Kruis all coming into the starting line-up from the side that faced Munster last weekend.
Charlie Hodgson, Chris Wyles and Ernst Joubert all move to the bench while the hamstring injury that Andy Saull picked up on Monday in the A-League semi-final rules him out of the 23. Adam Powell, Jackson Wray, Jacques Burger, Justin Melck, Alistair Hargreaves and Joe Maddock also miss out through injury.
"It's not often in sport that you get a chance to rectify things that may have gone wrong the week before, but that's the beauty of these rounds three and four matches against the same opposition and it represents a great opportunity for the squad to put in the kind of performance we know we can deliver," said Saracens Director of Rugby Mark McCall.
"We are level on match points and both teams have the chance to take control of the group going into the final two rounds of matches. But we have to make sure that our fundamentals and foundations are excellent across the pitch if we are to get the result that we want."
Meanwhile, Munster make just one change for the return game with Casey Laulala into the side in place of the injured Keith Earls.
Earls trained in Limerick on Tuesday but later complained of groin trouble and so withdraws with Laulala resuming the centre partnership he enjoyed with James Downey for the Racing Metro and Edinburgh games.
On Tuesday at the media briefing Rob Penney had expressed concern over several players, including Earls, but there was no further cause for concern after those players - Simon Zebo, BJ Botha, Dave O'Callaghan - came through training on Friday in Cork.
The teams:
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Kelly Brown, 7 Will Fraser, 6 George Kruis, 5 Mouritz Botha, 4 Steve Borthwick (capt), 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Eoin Sheriff, 20 Ernst Joubert, 21 Neil de Kock, 22 Charlie Hodgson, 23 Chris Wyles.
Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Doug Howlett (capt), 13 Casey Laulala, 12 James Downey, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Dave O'Callaghan, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Mike Sherry, 1 David Kilcoyne.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Peter Butler, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Luk O'Dea.
Date: Sunday, December 16
Kick-off: 15:00
Venue: Vicarage Road
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garces (France), Jean-Luc Rebollal (France)
Television match official: Gérard Borreani (France)
Comments
tooroysh says...
PR you should really be getting the names right for players i.e Paddy Butler!!
Posted 12:50 16th December 2012
Bambo says...
Gingergenius - People keep making this point about French sides and the French national squad. It's been discussed for years now. However, the evidence of some national decline has never materialized - ranked 4th currently and usually hover between 6 and 4, 3 out of 3 in the November games with a two in a row besting of the French bogey man Argentina, final of RWC 11, 2010 6N Grand Slam (awful showing in 2012 more the result of post RWC burn out for old legs than anything else). You only have to look at the 15 or so young names that PSA left out in November to see France is in good health.
Posted 11:12 16th December 2012
MunsterRedArmy says...
Last game was intense, sadly no tries even though both teams had a few good opportunities. Maybe tomorrow! Btw does anyone know why Strings is out of the picture? I think he still has a year or so of good rugby in him!
Gwan Munster!!
Posted 12:09 15th December 2012
jtimkins says...
Really hope Luke O'Dea gets a decent run, one of the best finishers I have ever seen and a real prospect for both Munster and Ireland.
Posted 03:21 15th December 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
Think this will be the making of Fez as Sarries first choice 10.
Posted 21:34 14th December 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
Sarries should come back well. Good to see them rotating the 10s instead of messing with Fez. Beating the ABs and training for 4 weeks with England at 10 then put him back to 13! Not surprised he was off but he will show his character in a position where he can make best impact.
Posted 21:32 14th December 2012
liam2me says...
I wouldn't say that 12 of the Sarries side are English, more like 12 of them have wrangled their way into the Club England side
Posted 19:45 14th December 2012
Gingergenius says...
12 saracens starters this week are english, one welsh, one scottish and one springbok.
12 munster starters are irish, with 2 kiwis and a springbok into the mix.
Meanwhile ulster have 3 non irish starters and leinster 2.
Compare that to the big 3 in france - toulon have 10 non french starters, clermont 8, which make toulouse look good with 5.
I suppose we'll see how much this impacts the french international side in the future...
Posted 16:15 14th December 2012