Saracens

15 Feb 2007 - 16:55

Saracens return to league action on Sunday when Gloucester are the visitors to Vicarage Road and a win for the Men In Black could lift them into the top four of the Guinness Premiership.

Having named his side for the game earlier today, Saracens Director of Rugby Alan Gaffney has included both Andy Farrell and Fabio Ongaro in the starting line up following their return from international duty.

In other team news, Cencus Johnston gets his first start at Vicarage Road while Tomas de Vedia, who scored four tries in his last outing against Narbonne, gets the nod on the wing.

"We've had a good week in training and the guys are feeling pretty fresh going into the game," explained Gaffney whose squad enjoyed a week off before flying to Jersey for a mid-season training camp last week. "This is a big game for us against a side who have quality throughout their squad and are justifiably one of the favourites to win the competition.

[i]"Cobus Visagie is not quite ready yet so Cencus Johnston comes into the starting line-up and both Andy Farrell and Fabio Ongaro come back into the side after international duty. We've managed our players this season to ensure they've not played too many games and both are happy to play this weekend.

"As a club, we're in a good position as we go into the final third of the season. We've played some good rugby in recent matches although against London Irish we didn't take our chances so we have to make sure we address that this weekend. Gloucester are a quality team, but from our point of view, we're going into the game with a strong squad and it's a match we are really looking forward to."

Cobus Visagie, Ben Johnston, Ross Laidlaw, Thomas Castaignede and Ben Russell were not considered due to injury.