Bath v Saracens: Teams

Bath will hope to finally register a home win this season when they take on Guinness Premiership pacesetters Saracens on Saturday.

Last weekend's 27-16 result against Newcastle at The Rec means an away victory at Sale is still the only success for Steve Meehan's side so far.

Their hopes of getting back to winning ways this weekend are not helped by the absence of a trio of players being away with England.

Winger Matt Banahan is missing but it is the absence of tighthead props Duncan Bell and David Wilson that has caused the most problems.

Aaron Jarvis starts in the front row alongside Pieter Dixon and David Flatman while there is a place on the bench for Mark Lilley, whose only other previous appearance in the first team came as a replacement hooker last season.

In the backs, Meehan has decided to start Ryan Davis at fly-half with Nicky Little dropping to the bench.

Desperate

"We have just got to go out and give it everything we have physically got and make sure we play through to the 80 minutes," Bath's head coach said.

"Once we do that we are good enough to beat anybody. Confidence comes as a result of winning and as a result of doing things well.

"We have physically just got to burst through this wall. We may change the way we do things slightly and try to work on a win and a good performance.

"We are desperate to get a result because the effort is terrific. The reality is we are sitting in 11th place in the Guinness Premiership but my perception of things is we are a much better side than that. We just need to keep working hard and I know it will come and hopefully it will be this weekend."

With Steve Borthwick off with England, Saracens will be captained by South African flanker Wikus van Heerden.

Director of rugby Brendan Venter has drafted in Matias Aguero, who gets the nod ahead of Rhys Gill, and Hugh Vyvyan to start in the forwards.

Derick Hougaard and Justin Marshall are ruled out through injury but Rodd Penney returns to the matchday 23 alongside scrum-half Kevin Barrett.

"Any trip to Bath is always difficult and we are expecting a tough clash at The Rec on Saturday," said Venter.

"We've made a good start to the campaign but we know that we need to improve on our performance levels to keep it going but everyone in the squad is fully focussed and determined to do just that."

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Jack Cuthbert, 13 Matt Carraro, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Michael Stephenson, 10 Ryan Davis, 9 Michael Claassens (c), 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Stuart Hooper, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Peter Short, 3 Aaron Jarvis, 2 Pieter Dixon, 1 David Flatman.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 David Barnes, 18 Mark Lilley, 19 Jonny Faamatuainu, 20 Chris Cracknell, 21 Scott Bemand, 22 Nicky Little, 23 Tom Cheeseman.

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Noah Cato, 13 Kameli Ratuvou, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Glen Jackson, 9 Neil de Kock, 8 Ernst Joubert, 7 Andy Saull, 6 Wikus van Heerden (c), 5 Mouritz Botha, 4 Hugh Vyvyan, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements: 16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Richard Skuse, 19 Tom Ryder, 20 Justin Melck, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Rodd Penney, 23 Michael Tagicakibau.