Do or die for Biarritz
Biarritz need to beat Premiership champions Saracens at Vicarage Road on Sunday to keep their feint hopes of qualification for the knock-out stages of this season’s Heineken Cup alive.
The English champions, who are leaders of Pool Five, are only two points ahead of the former beaten finalists and the winners of this intriguing tussle will put themselves in pole position for a quarterfinal place.
Sarries, who returned to top-flight European competition for the first time in three years last season, know a victory over the Basques will guarantee them a place in the last eight.
The French side face a tough final two weeks of the tournament with their trip to Watford this weekend followed by the visit of the Ospreys on the final weekend of the pool stages.
The teams:
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 David Strettle, 13 Owen Farrell, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Ernst Joubert, 7 Andy Saull, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Mouritz Botha, 4 Steve Borthwick, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 John Smit, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Petrus du Plessis, 18 Matt Stevens, 19 George Kruis, 20 Jackson Wray, 21 Peter Stringer, 22 Adam Powell, 23 James Short.
Biarritz Olympique: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Taku Ngwenya, 13 Charles Gimenez, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Ilikena Bolakoro, 10 Marcelo Bosch, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Florian Faure, 7 Benoit Guyot, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Pelu Taele, 4 Jérôme Thion, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Romain Terrain, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements: 16 Arnaud Heguy, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Eusebio Guinazu, 19 Manuel Carizza, 20 Imanol Harinordoquy, 21 Julien Peyrelongue, 22 Benoît Baby, 23 Dane Haylett-Petty.
Date: Sunday, January 15
Venue: Vicarage Road, Watford
Kick-off: 15.00 GMT
Referee: George Clancy
