Brad Barritt will make his 200th appearance for Saracens, becoming fourth current squad member at Saracens to pass the 200 milestone.
Barritt will skipper the side from inside centre, alongside Marcelo Bosch who comes back into the side after missing Saracens win away to Worcester Warriors. Chris Wyles continues on the left-wing after his try-scoring brace at Sixways, with Liam Williams returning for Saracens on the right-wing in place of Sean Maitland who has been ruled out of action with a foot injury.
In the halves, Alex Lozowski continues at fly-half, with Richard Wigglesworth coming into the side at scrumhalf for Ben Spencer who takes his place on the replacements bench.
In the front row, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Juan Figallo start whilst elsewhere in the pack Nick Isiekwe and George Kruis start at lock. Maro Itoje continues at blindside flanker with Michael Rhodes and Schalk Burger ruled out with shoulder injuries, whilst Calum Clark continues at openside flanker – Jackson Wray is named at eight.
Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall: “The opening five rounds have proven how exciting this competition can be, with upsets across the league and some high-quality rugby on show. As a squad, we are looking forward to an exciting period of fixtures that we have over the next few weeks in both the Premiership and Europe. Last weekend we came away from Sixways with a good away win at Worcester Warriors and our focus this week has been preparing to face Wasps, a team who we have enjoyed some great battles with over the last few seasons. Wasps have quality throughout their squad, and as always, they will pose us a real challenge on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, Wasps’ Director of Rugby Dai Young has named the side to travel to Allianz Park on Sunday to face reigning European Champions Saracens.
Willie le Roux returns at full back, with Rob Miller moving to fly half in the absence of Jimmy Gopperth who picked up an injury against Bath last weekend.
Up front, it’s a re-shuffled pack. Ashley Johnson starts at hooker, Marty Moore at tighthead and Matt Mullan, who will also captain the side, at loosehead. With a five-day turn-around between Saracens and Ulster in the European Champions Cup at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday evening, Joe Launchbury is rested as a precaution following a knock picked up last weekend, having already played every game for Wasps this season.
Will Rowlands and Marcus Garratt form the second row pairing, with Garratt in line to make his Premiership debut. James Gaskell returns from injury to take a place on the bench, as does Dan Robson at scrum half.
James Haskell, Thomas Young and Jack Willis form Wasps back row. Nathan Hughes is recovering from the dead leg sustained against Bath. Willis, who was promoted from Wasps Senior Academy squad this season, is joined in the match day squad by his younger brother Tom, a current member of Wasps Senior Academy, who will provide back row cover on the bench.
Ahead of the trip to Allianz Park, Dai Young said: “All sides will go through periods where they’re missing a number of front line players and we’ve hit that period early on in the season, but it’s what building a quality squad is about.
“I have faith in every player in our squad that they will do a really good job for us every time they wear the Wasps’ shirt. It’s a good opportunity for some of our younger guys coming through to show what they can against one of the toughest opponents in Europe.
“We also have a couple of guys returning from injury which is great to see. We will give it everything we have against a quality Saracens side and look to put right the areas of our performance we haven’t been happy with over the past couple of weeks.”
Form: Saracens only defeat in Premiership Rugby this season was 21-31 at Bath in round 2. Saracens are unbeaten in their last seventeen home games in Premiership Rugby since Northampton beat them at Allianz Park in March 2015, their best ever home run. Wasps have slipped to three straight defeats in Premiership Rugby but have not lost four in a row in the tournament since March 2014. Away from home this season Wasps beat Worcester in round 2 and lost at Exeter in round 4. Both teams won their respective home game when they met in Premiership Rugby last season, reversing the trend of 2015/16. Wasps three most recent victories on Saracens soil came at Vicarage Road in 2008, Twickenham Stadium in 2011 and Allianz Park in February 2016.
The teams:
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Brad Barritt (c), 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Alex Lozowski, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Jackson Wray, 7 Calum Clark, 6 Maro Itoje, 5 George Kruis, 4 Nick Isiekwe, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola
Replacements: 16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Hayden Thompson-Stringer, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Dominic Day, 20 Joel Conlon, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Duncan Taylor
Wasps: 15 Willie Le Roux, 14 Marcus Watson, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Brendan Macken, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Rob Miller, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Thomas Young, 7 Jack Willis, 6 James Haskell, 5 Will Rowlands, 4 Marcus Garratt, 3 Marty Moore, 2 Ashley Johnson, 1 Matt Mullan (c)
Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Ben Harris, 18 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 19 James Gaskell, 20 Tom Willis, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Juan De Jongh, 23 Christian Wade
Date: Saturday, October 6
Venue: Madejski Stadium
Kick-off: 15:00 local (14:00 GMT)
Referee: Ian Tempest
Assistant referees: Paul Dix, Nigel Carrick
TMO: Sean Davey
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