One of the extraordinary comeback tales of either Leicester Tigers or Saracens will reach a fairytale conclusion this Saturday, as they announced their teams for the Premiership final.
Tigers are bidding for a first title since 2013, having bounced back from consecutive second-bottom finishes in 2019 and 2020 to return to a venue they visited for nine finals in a row up to their last title.
They were only saved in 2020 by Saracens’ enforced relegation for salary cap breaches, and the North West Londoners will be hoping to repeat the feat they achieved in the Championship last year – finishing second before winning the play-off final – in the Premiership this year.
The headline change for Tigers sees veteran scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth come into the side replacing Ben Youngs.
Youngs is one of only three Leicester players in the squad to have featured in the club’s last final alongside Dan Cole and George Ford, who both start, with Ford playing the last game of his second spell before a move to Sale Sharks next season.
The only other Tigers change sees Chris Ashton come in for Dan Kelly as Leicester re-shuffle their backs.
Both Tigers changes see former Saracens players come into the side – Wigglesworth won five Premiership titles and three European Champions Cups with Sarries, whilst Ashton won two of the former and one of the latter.
Saracens make just one change as Tim Swinson surprisingly drops out of the squad entirely in what was supposed to be his last professional match, while Nick Iseikwe starts in his place and Mako Vunipola makes his 200th appearance for the men in black.
The game will be the third time the two sides have gone head-to-head in the final, tied 1-1 in the showpieces they have played so far, after Tigers won in 2010 and Sarries took their first crown in 2011, with both finals ranking amongst some of the very best ever.
Before those finals Leicester had been the dominant force in English rugby, whilst Saracens took the mantle on subsequently, the two teams winning nine of the thirteen titles contested between 2007 and 2019 between them.
Saracens are the bookies favourites, as mentioned on this week’s podcast, but Leicester did top the table and beat them earlier in the season, in the only game that saw both sides have their international players available (with Saracens victory against the Tigers being played during the Six Nations).
Podcast guest Kyran Bracken also backed his former club, but remained wary of the threat the Tigers might possess.
He said: “Saracens are favourites, they’ve got the better team, the better kicker, the better pack, the backs are more exciting.
“Sport’s strange in what it does to people though. I go to that game and I think that Saracens are going to win it but I’m not so sure.
“I think Saracens have been inconsistent, in the semi-final against Quins they conceded a try from the driving maul and their scrum was going backwards at times, which is unusual for Saracens.
“That’s where Leicester are strongest, and with Saracens being less consistent than Leicester [this season], I think it’s going to be a cracking final.”
Columnist Chris Hewett saw the individual battles as key in his analysis, with props Mako Vunipola and Ellis Genge considered vital to the outcome.
“It’s always been the case with Mako [Vunipola] that if he’d been able to scrummage as well as he did everything else, he’d have been the greatest loosehead ever to play the game.
“But he can’t, and on a bad day, he can really be exposed in the tight, and I think Leicester will go after him there.
“Just as I think Leicester will send Ellis Genge and Jasper Wiese after [Owen] Farrell.
“Farrell will stand up to it, of course, like he did against Harlequins, but that won’t stop Leicester trying to rile him.”
As has often been the case in Premiership finals over the last decade, the game is set to be played in sweltering heats, with 27 degrees celsius predicted to be the temperature throughout the final.
Regardless, this was always likely to be a red-hot affair, as two of England’s all-time great teams return to the home of English rugby.
Teams:
Leicester Tigers: Genge (c), Montoya, Cole, Chessum, Green, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese, Wigglesworth, Ford, Potter, Porter, Moroni, Ashton, Steward
Substitutions: Clare, Leatigaga, Heyes, Wells, Martin, Youngs, Burns, Scott.
Saracens: M Vunipola, George, Koch, Itoje, Isiekwe, McFarland, Earl, B Vunipola, Davies, Farrell (c), Maitland, Tompkins, Daly, Malins, Goode.
Substitutions: Pifeleti, Mawi, Clarey, Wray, Christie, Van Zyl, Taylor, Lozowski.
You can catch the all the action from Saturday’s final in the report, reaction and analysis from some of rugby’s biggest writers in this Sunday’s edition of The Rugby Paper, available in newsagents across the country.
