Preview: London Irish v Saracens
November 21 2008
London Irish coach Toby Booth has announced an unchanged starting line-up for Sunday's Guinness Premiership match with Saracens at Madejski Stadium.
The club keeps confidence in the team that secured an important away win over Newcastle Falcons last weekend.
The only change is among the replacements where Tom Homer comes in after Tonga Lea'aetoa was called into the Pacific Islands squad for their match with Italy this weekend.
Mike Catt captains the team in the absence of Bob Casey with the Ireland squad.
Meanwhile, South African Wikus van Heerden will make his debut start as one of three changes to the Saracens starting line-up.
The Springbok World Cup winner came off the bench to make his first appearance in Sarries colours last weekend and the 29-year-old loose forward is given a start ahead of Andy Saull.
In other team news, Rodd Penney returns to the wing after shaking off a calf injury and he takes the place of Kevin Sorrell who moves to the replacements bench.
Tom Ryder is also given the nod to start in the second row with Kris Chesney named as one of the replacements.
"Andy Saull has played extremely well all season but we just feel that we'd get a better 80 minutes out of Wikus van Heerden this week," explained Saracens Director of Rugby Eddie Jones.
"Both Wikus and Brad Barritt showed up well in their debuts last week so they continue in the side. Rodd Penney is fit again so he returns in place of Kevin Sorrell who did very well for us last week on the wing.
"It's going to be a tough game against London Irish but we will be going there looking to impose our attack and defence.
"We were disappointed with the performance against Gloucester last week and we've identified the areas in which we need to improve and I expect us to do just that this weekend."
The teams:
London Irish: 15 Peter Hewat, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Elvis Seveali'i, 12 Shane Geraghty, 11 James Bailey, 10 Mike Catt (c), 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia, 7 Declan Danaher, 6 Richard Thorpe, 5 Kieran Roche, 4 Nick Kennedy, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 2 David Paice, 1 Clarke Dermody.
Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Alex Corbisiero, 18 Gary Johnson, 19 Steffon Armitage, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Charlie Gower, 22 Tom Homer.
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Rodd Penney, 13 Adam Powell, 12 Andy Farrell (c), 11 Noah Cato, 10 Glen Jackson, 9 Neil de Kock, 8 Michael Owen, 7 Wikus van Heerden, 6 Ben Skirving, 5 Hugh Vyvyan, 4 Tom Ryder, 3 Cobus Visagie, 2 Matt Cairns, 1 Nick Lloyd.
Replacements: 16 Andy Kyriacou, 17 Tom Mercey, 18 Kris Chesney, 19 Andy Saull, 20 Micky Wilson, 21 Brad Barritt, 22 Kevin Sorrell.
Date: Sunday, November 23
Venue: Madejski Stadium
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Touch judges: Paul Emerson, Andrew Pearce
Assessor: Gary Welsh
Television match official: Clive Leeke