Star-studded Saracens arrive in Philadelphia

Saracens have not packed lightly for their feature match against Newcastle Falcons at Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia on Saturday. A full compliment of stars have arrived stateside with the European Champions boasting an impressive 24 full internationals in their squad including six members of the 2017 British & Irish Lions trip to New Zealand as well as Billy Vunipola, who was forced to opt out of the tour with a shoulder injury.

Three Americas players are set to take part in the match with World Cup Pumas Juan Figallo and Marcelo Bosch included as well as former US Eagles skipper Chris Wyles. Current Eagles prop Titi Lamositele has also made the trip but is not available to play on Saturday due to a neck injury. Other notables include 2007 World Cup winner and 2004 IRB (World Rugby) Player of the Year Schalk Burger, giant Wallabies lock Will Skelton, and 2013 Lions tourists Brad Barritt and Sean Maitland.

Training sessions will take place at both Talen Energy Stadium and the University of Pennsylvania throughout the week. Saturday’s match kicks off at 5pm local (Eastern) time, 2pm Pacific. The match will be broadcast live in the USA by NBC Sports and in the UK by BT Sport. Tickets are available via Philadelphia Union MLS and StubHub.

FORWARDS
Richard Barrington, Juan Figallo, Vincent Koch, Kieran Longbottom, Hayden Thompson-Stringer, Mako Vunipola, Schalk Brits, Jamie George, Scott Spurling, Christopher Tolofua, Dominic Day, Mark Flanagan, Nick Isiekwe, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Will Skelton, Schalk Burger, Calum Clark, Joel Conlon, Michael Rhodes, Billy Vunipola, Jackson Wray

BACKS
Ben Spencer, Henry Taylor, Tom Whiteley, Richard Wigglesworth, Owen Farrell, Alex Lozowski, Brad Barritt (capt.), Marcelo Bosch, Tom Griffiths, Duncan Taylor, Nick Tompkins, Nathan Earle, Mike Ellery, Sean Maitland, Liam Williams, Chris Wyles, Alex Goode