"Saracens are fully motivated" say Mako Vunipola

October 20, 2023
875
Ultimate Rugby

Prop Mako Vunipola will captain the side on his return from injury as they look to respond from their opening day defeat at Sandy Park, and he is one of six changes to the starting line-up.

There are three up front and three to the back-line, with Nick Tompkins the latest star to return from Rugby World Cup duty to slot straight back in to the side.

Vunipola starts at loosehead, with James Hadfield who makes his first start for the club at hooker, and Marco Riccioni continues at tighthead.

Callum Hunter-Hill and Nick Isiekwe continue in the second-row and will look to dominate at lineout time. Theo McFarland keeps his place at blindside flanker, with Andy Christie making his first start of the campaign at openside, and Tom Willis is at the base of the scrum once again.

Aled Davies stays at scrum-half, whilst Manu Vunipola regains the keys to number 10. Tompkins will add some stardust to the midfield and will be looking to continue his sensational form which made him one of the standout performers in France, and he will reignite his centre partnership with Alex Lozowski.

Rotimi Segun and Sean Maitland will be on the wings, and Alex Goode moves to full-back for the clash with the West Country outfit.

On the bench Samson Adejimi gets another chance to add his input, and Gareth Simpson will bring some more experience to the matchday squad.

Vunipola is excited to be back out there this weekend.

“We are all fully aware that the performance against Exeter last Saturday wasn’t good enough and we have had some very open and honest conversations this week in the review. We pride ourselves on our work rate and effort which is why that defeat hurt so much for us.

There is no margin for error in this league with games coming thick and fast so it’s really important that we channel the frustration from last week and use it to our advantage.

Bath are a team who are incredibly dangerous as they showed last week and they have quality right throughout their squad so we need to be at our best.”

Saracens Men team to play Bath Rugby:

1 Mako Vunipola (c)

2 James Hadfield

3 Marco Riccioni

4 Callum Hunter-Hill

5 Nick Isiekwe

6 Theo McFarland

7 Andy Christie

8 Tom Willis

9 Aled Davies

10 Manu Vunipola

11 Rotimi Segun