Saracens vs Gloucester - Saturday 3pm

[Puja]

Saracens v Gloucester

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Rotimi Segun, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Tom Parton, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Aled Davies, 8 Tom Willis, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 5 Theo McFarland, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Theo Dan, 1 Mako Vunipola
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Billy Vunipola, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Manu Vunipola, 23 Olly Hartley

Gloucester: 15 George Barton, 14 Josh Hathaway, 13 Louis Hillman-Cooper, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Jake Morris, 10 Charlie Atkinson, 9 Caolan Englefield, 8 Jack Clement, 7 Lewis Ludlow (c), 6 Albert Tuisue, 5 Freddie Thomas, 4 Arthur Clark, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Santi Socino, 1 Mayco Vivas
Replacements: 16 Seb Blake, 17 Harry Elrington, 18 Ciaran Knight, 19 Danny Eite, 20 Rob Nixon, 21 Charlie Chapman, 22 Jack Reeves, 23 Ioan Jones

Venue: StoneX Stadium
Kick-off: 15:00 BST
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson, Gareth Holsgrove
TMO: Rowan Kitt

[FKAS]

Oosh Glaws are in for a pasting aren't they. Sarries welcoming back players from injury at a good time to help them out for the league.

[fivepointer]

Lots of good young English talent in the Glos side. They do face quite a test.

[Timbo]

Olly Hartley stretchered off in pain at the end of the match. Hope not too serious.

[ilovelamp]

Seb Blake was unreal again when he came on. Lovely grubber to set up Hathaway for his first and just excellent all over the park. Let’s hope the Aussies don’t call him up before England!

[FKAS]

Seb Blake was unreal again when he came on. Lovely grubber to set up Hathaway for his first and just excellent all over the park. Let’s hope the Aussies don’t call him up before England!

He's going to be an international sooner rather than later. If Langdon wasn't in such great form I'd say maybe even as soon as this summer.

Big lad, mobile and skillful. On top of that his set piece work is solid.

Odd day for England front rowers and kicking with Stuart's grubber against Chiefs nearly setting up a try for Ojomoh. Now Blake grubbers one in for Hathaway. Maybe Silky Balls has had them all practising their kicking after all.

[Puja]

Seb Blake was unreal again when he came on. Lovely grubber to set up Hathaway for his first and just excellent all over the park. Let’s hope the Aussies don’t call him up before England!

He's really making me eat my words from the England A squad thread. I'll happily admit I was wrong on him.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Seb Blake was unreal again when he came on. Lovely grubber to set up Hathaway for his first and just excellent all over the park. Let’s hope the Aussies don’t call him up before England!

Agreed. Looks like a very interesting prospect.

I didn’t realise he was qualified for Australia, but after doing some digging, this article is actually a pretty good read: https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/seb-blak ... razy-year/

[FKAS]

Seb Blake was unreal again when he came on. Lovely grubber to set up Hathaway for his first and just excellent all over the park. Let’s hope the Aussies don’t call him up before England!

Agreed. Looks like a very interesting prospect.

I didn’t realise he was qualified for Australia, but after doing some digging, this article is actually a pretty good read: https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/seb-blak ... razy-year/

Thanks for that. Good read. He sounds like a future international doesn't he. Wish we'd captured him in the A game now. Australia under Schmidt really should be all over him, he'd add a lot in an area of weakness for them (Dave Porecki got caps FFS). Hopefully Smooth Bullshitter is talking to him regularly about how he's in England's plans.

[fivepointer]

Didnt realise he had an Australian qualification. Bigger than i thought he was too. Looks a good 'un to me. Suddenly we appear to have some options at hooker.

[Mikey Brown]

Is LCD done? I haven’t really seen him for Sale and wasn’t sure if he was rightly behind Dan at this point. Either way it’s great to have some options with him and George getting on a bit.

Walker looked quite good for a season or so, but didn’t seem to push on from there at all and has now slipped back down the pecking order.

[Puja]

Is LCD done? I haven’t really seen him for Sale and wasn’t sure if he was rightly behind Dan at this point. Either way it’s great to have some options with him and George getting on a bit.

LCD has only had 8 starts this season with injury and form, so he's not got a body of form behind him. Just found out he's only 30, which was a huge surprise to me. Could still be an option going forward, but he needs to stay fit for a while before he can re-enter the discussion.

Puja

[Scrumhead]

Is LCD done? I haven’t really seen him for Sale and wasn’t sure if he was rightly behind Dan at this point. Either way it’s great to have some options with him and George getting on a bit.

Walker looked quite good for a season or so, but didn’t seem to push on from there at all and has now slipped back down the pecking order.

Walker has been pretty poor this season for Quins. Riley has looked considerably better.

Langdon OTOH is looking like the real deal and is consistently excellent for Saints. I’m surprised he hasn’t had more of a look-in.

Schmidt might want to change the rules for overseas players, but I’ll be surprised if he gets that over the line this year. If Blake keeps playing well, he may be a bolter for the summer tour or AIs.