Exeter are bolstered by the return of England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and Scotland lock Jonny Gray for the visit of rivals Saracens to Sandy Park.

England back Elliot Daly plays for the first time this season for Sarries in one of three changes.

Ben Earl comes in at flanker while Alex Lewington is selected on the wing.

But Saracens' England captain Owen Farrell and team-mate Jamie George are still out injured as full-strength sides from both clubs meet for the first time in almost two years.

Rivalry renewed

The game is a renewal of a rivalry which has come to define English club rugby for more than half a decade.

The clubs have met in three Premiership finals, with Saracens winning them all, while Exeter beat Mark McCall's side in a dramatic semi-final at Sandy Park in 2017.

Saracens' last title win in 2019 was tainted by the salary cap scandal which saw the club initially docked 35 points and fined £5.36m for breaching spending rules from 2016 to 2019.

It led to a feisty meeting between the two sides in December of that year, which Exeter won 14-7 at Sandy Park.

Saracens were relegated from the top flight in January 2020 after being unable to adhere to the cap that season.

The sides have met once since - Saracens won 40-17 in a game between two understrength sides behind closed doors, a week before the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup, with the Londoners already down and the Chiefs having secured a play-off place.

"We've been in finals and semi-finals and towards the top end of the Premiership quite a lot in the last few years and everyone's aware of some of the salary cap stuff that got talked about over and over again," Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.

"You use anything you can, if some of the players are still feeling that's an issue then that's great and they should use that as motivation.

"I don't think by any means that's every player's motivation, so you've all got to find your own reasons - it'll be exactly the same for Saracens.

"For some players it'll be just about collecting points in going on the way to having a really good season and the aim to win something at the end, for other guys it might still be a personal thing."

'We try not to hype things up too much'

Having been relegated, Saracens cruised to the Championship title last season with 10 successive wins after a shock opening-day loss at Cornish Pirates.

Meanwhile, Exeter reached a sixth-successive Premiership final where they were beaten by Harlequins a season after winning a domestic and European double.

While the game is between two sides with history, it is also a chance for some of England's top players to go head-to-head a couple of months out from the Six Nations, as the likes of Jonny Hill, Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade line up for the hosts against players such as Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola and Daly.

"We try not to hype things up too much, we want to be a really consistent team who don't pick and choose when we get motivated and when we don't," said Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall.

"But there are obviously games that certain individuals really enjoy getting up for, and for some people that might be Exeter.

"Our motivation is very inward in lots of ways. We've got a really good group here who care a lot about what they do, and a lot about each other, and that's served us well down the years.

"We're going to face Exeter at their best this weekend, no question," McCall added.

"They're probably going to have their strongest team of the season out and be at their most motivated."

Exeter: Hogg; Nowell, Slade, Whitten, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds, J Maunder; Hepburn, Cowan-Dickie, Iosefa-Scott, Gray, Hill, Ewers, Armand, S Simmonds.

Replacements: Yeandle, Kenny, Nixon, Capstick, Kiresten, S Maunder, H Skinner, Hendrickson.

Saracens: Malins; Lewington, Lozowski, Tompkins, Daly; Goode (co-capt), Davies; M Vunipola, Lewis, Koch, Itoje, Isiekwe, Wray (co-capt), Earl, B Vunipola .

Replacements: Pifeleti, Mawi, Clarey, Swinson, McFarland, Christie, van Zyl, Morris.

Referee: Luke Pearce.