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Poppy Cleall primed for Saracens milestone in mouth-watering Premier 15s clash with Loughborough

The third round of the Premier 15s gets underway this weekend

Sarah Rendell
Friday 17 September 2021 16:18 BST
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Poppy Cleall is set to hit a huge milestone this weekend
Poppy Cleall is set to hit a huge milestone this weekend (Getty Images)

England No 8 Poppy Cleall will make her 100th appearance for Saracens on Saturday when the club take on Loughborough Lightning in the Premier 15s.

She will start in the hotly anticipated match at the StoneX Stadium and she is proud to have reached the milestone for the club.

Cleall said: “To be able to play in the best league in the world fills me with great pride and I hope we can go out and get the win to keep up our good start to the season.

“I’d like to thank all of the fans for their support throughout my whole period here, I love representing the Saracens badge.”

The match will see two of the top four from last season go head-to-head and Cleall’s Saracens will be favourites to take the win. The two-time champions have had an electric start to the season with two wins from two but Loughborough have had a disastrous start.

The 20/21 semi-finalists have lost both games so far and to make matters worse they lost one of their best players, Emily Scarratt, in the first match after she broke her leg. It’s unknown when the England star will be back in action for the club.

Fans will be able to attend Sarries home ground but if that’s not an option, the match will be streamed on the Premier 15s website as just one of two games being shown - the other being Harlequins vs Exeter Chiefs.

Reigning champions Quins will look to continue their title defence against Exeter as they have bagged two victories already this season. They face tough opposition in Susie Appleby’s Exeter as they dealt Quins one of their three defeats last season.

Meanwhile, Bristol Bears are aiming to keep their wins rolling in as they are yet to taste defeat under new head coach Dave Ward.

Sensational wins over Gloucester-Hartpury and Exeter have them tied at the top of the table with Saracens and Quins in a much-improved display from last season. They will face DMP Durham Sharks whose own form hasn’t seen the step up that the club would have wanted from last term.

In the 20/21 campaign, DMP had two matches where over 100 points were put on them. So far this season they have lost twice but the point margin hasn’t been as high. They lost 75-5 to Sarries last Saturday and 84-0 to Gloucester in the opening weekend.

Elsewhere, Wasps will take on Worcester Warriors and though the London club may have a slight edge heading into it the west country team’s performances this season could see the match closer than many may think.

And finally, Sale Sharks will compete against Gloucester in what is set to be a win for the Cherry and Whites who are another team who have stepped up their form this season.

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