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Saracens, Sale make two changes each; Farrell-Ford go head-to-head


Owen Farrell and George Ford will be on opposite teams on Saturday in London (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
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Second-place Saracens and fourth-place Sale have named teams showing two changes each from the XVs that respectively defeated Bristol and Leicester.

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Saturday’s round 18 match at the StoneX will be crucial in determining the end-of-season semi-final line up, with the already qualified Londoners seeking to secure knockout stage home advantage and the Sharks looking to keep rivals Exeter, Harlequins and Bristol below them on the table.

Saracens were 41-20 winners at Ashton Gate last weekend and Mark McCall’s two changes see Christian Judge taking over at tighthead in place of the benched Marco Riccioni with Sean Maitland named on the right wing in place of the excluded Rotimi Segun.

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Sale, meanwhile, have included full-back Joe Carpenter and hooker Luke Cowan Dickie to start with Sam James and Tommy Taylor, try scorers in the win over Leicester, dropping to the bench.

The fixture will see Owen Farrell, the former England skipper, go head-to-head against George Ford, who took over the No10 Test for the Guinness Six Nations after Farrell decided to take a Test rugby sabbatical.

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Saracens
10 - 20
Full-time
Sale
All Stats and Data

SARACENS: 15. Elliot Daly; 14. Sean Maitland, 13. Lucio Cinti, 12. Nick Tompkins, 11. Tom Parton; 10. Owen Farrell (capt), 9. Ivan van Zyl; 1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Jamie George, 3. Christian Judge, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Hugh Tizard, 6. Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7. Ben Earl, 8. Tom Willis. Reps: 16. Theo Dan, 17. Eroni Mawi, 18. Marco Riccioni, 19. Nick Isiekwe, 20. Theo McFarland, 21. Billy Vunipola, 22. Aled Davies, 23. Alex Goode.

SALE: 15. Joe Carpenter; 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Tom O’Flaherty; 10. George Ford, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. James Harper, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Hyron Andrews, 6. Ben Curry (capt), 7. Sam Dugdale, 8. JL du Preez. Reps: 16. Tommy Taylor, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Ben Bamber, 20. Ernst van Rhyn, 21. Raffi Quirke, 22. Sam James, 23. Arron Reed.

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NoLongerARuck 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

The Six Nations produced so many compelling games and so much of action packed moments that you can only conclude that its the best international comp out there at the moment except for a world cup. If Wales improve it will be even better especially given the strides Italy have made in recent times. The Rugby Championship is now taking a hiatus in a year it really should be building toward something better which is terrible considering the competition was so tight last year. The Nations Champs promises much but one gets the feeling that the 6 Nations teams will not be at their peak given its at the end of their long season. In terms of rugby quality and entertainment Id rather watch the 6 Nations over everything else other than a world cup right now. The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field. In terms of entertainment the North wins. In terms of winning? They are making strides but until they win another world cup or get a team to rank number 1 again for an extended time again they cant really say they are better than the South.

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