Saracens remain the only unbeaten team so far this season and will be hoping to still be able to say that after tomorrow afternoon when they play the reverse fixture against Oyonnax at home after a very comfortable bonus point win at the Stade Charles-Mathon. A match full of free flowing attack and offloading that gave them 6 tries and a 10-45 victory.
However, Oyonnax will have different ideas and as we head into round 4 of the Champions Cup (although Oyonnax’s first match against Ulster was postponed) and they will travel to Allianz Park with the hope of a rare French away win and a chance of upsetting the kings of England and putting an end to their 9 match win streak. This, however. is likely to be an uphill struggle for the visitors as they head into this game as they sit bottom of the Top 14 table as well as Pool 1, and have only managed 2 wins all season.
The team that Saracens have selected suggests that they do not plan to go easy on their opponents, although they have decided to rest Billy Vunipola, Marcelo Bosh and Chris Wyles with George Kruis still missing due to a hand injury.
This does mean that Mako Vunipola will continue to try and impress Eddie Jones alongside South African duo Schalk Brits at Hooker and Petrus Du Plessis at Tighthead Prop. Then in the engine room, young starlet Maro Itoje continues to show how he continues to rapidly improve alongside the more experienced Jim Hamilton. Then a backrow with great carrying ability is made up of Jackson Wray at 6, Kelly Brown at openside Flanker and at Number 8 is the big Italian international Samu Vunisa.
Then in the backs Niel de Kock partners Owen Farrell at 9 and 10 where Farrell will want to continue his excellent form from last week. Then Captain Brad Barritt is at inside Centre with Scotsman Duncan Taylor at 13. Then in the back three is England 7s convert Mike Ellery at 11, Chris Ashton at 14 and Alex Goode will want to produce another stellor performance at Fullback. The bench is made up of Jamie George, Richard Barrington, Juan Figallo, Michael Rhodes, Will Fraser, Richard Wigglesworth, Charlie Hodgson and Ben Ransom.
The Oyonnax pack as always has some serious bulk and will be hoping to get on top of the set piece after last weekend where they conceded a penalty try. The Frontrow is made up of the powerful trio of Delboulbes at Loosehead Prop, Maurouard controlling the lineout which will need to function much better this week, starts at Hooker and Clerc finishes the frontrow at 3. Then the two Locks are Power and Fabbri, who will be looking to cause problems for Schalk Brits at the lineout and will need to get through a mountain of work in the loose if they want to emerge with the win. Then in a Backrow, which was one of the good things about the Oyonnax side last week consists of Ursache at Blindside Flanker, Wannenburg at 7 where he will hope to disrupt the Londoners possession and finally Faure will hope to carry hard at Number 8.
In the backs Oyonnax will need a lot more creativity if they hope to score more than once at Allianz park and they are marshaled by Blanc at Scrumhalf and Lespinas takes over from Clegg after his poor kicking performance at Fly-half. The two Centres are made up of Tawalo and Bousses, pair that will want to make sure that they make good yardage and provide their electric back three with space and time to attack. The two wingers are Tongan International Vainikolo, a man who has faced Saracens before during his time with Exeter Chiefs and at 14 is Ikpefan. Finally to complete the starting lineup, Denos is positioned at Fullback. The bench is made up of Jenneker, Wright, Pungea, Maafu, Bordes, Aziza, Clegg and Martin.
