Rugby preview: Battle of the unbeatens –  Gloucester seek to end ten year winless streak at Saracens

By Peter Moore

We are already into Week 4 of what is turning out to be a thrilling Gallagher Premiership season. So many tries have already been scored, with only a handful of games being low scoring affairs.

This Sunday 23^rd September will see second place Saracens entertain the side currently sitting in third,  Gloucester at Allianz Park. Both sides come into Sunday’s mouth-watering match with an unbeaten record.

Sarries will be looking to maintain their 100% winning run, after dispatching Newcastle, Bristol and Northampton with bonus point victories. For the Cherry and Whites, they also remain unbeaten so far with victories over Northampton and Bristol, with a share of the points against their West Country rivals Bath.

Saracens go into Sunday’s game having won their last ten Premiership matches, scoring four or more tries in their last nine games. Last Saturday Sarries traveled north to Franklin Gardens and came away with a 38-27 win against Northampton.

The hosts have named five changes for the visit of Gloucester, with Richard Wigglesworth starting and thus making the all-time Premiership appearance record with 266 outings in the competition. Owen Farrell returns from a minor strain while Sean Maitland is back from a dislocated finger. George Kruis will make his first start of the season with Ben Earl starting in the back row.

On a day of records for Saracens, England hooker Jamie George will be making his 200^th appearance for Sarries.

Gloucester, who are unbeaten after the first three rounds of the top tier for the first time since the 2007-8 season, will come into Sunday’s battle in good heart after beating Bristol at Kingsholm last Friday 35-13.

However, the Cherry and Whites don’t travel well. Their only victory on the road since November in the Premiership was a 33-29 victory at London Irish in March. You will also have to go back a long time to remember their last victory against Saracens on their home turf which came back in November 2008.

For Sundays game Head Coach Johan Ackermann has named an unchanged starting line up, with just one change in the replacements, prop Val Rapava Ruskin returns.

This intriguing contest in prospect has the makings of being a high scoring affair. Already this season both Saracens and Gloucester have scored a combined 207 points between them with Sarries scoring 114 and Gloucester 93.

The game will be shown on Sunday on NBC SN at 2 PM Eastern.

Sunday rugby on NBC