Former French star Castaignède returns at No.10 after recovering from injury. He replaces veteran Fiji pivot Nicky Little, with the latter dropping out of the squad because of the foreign player ruling.

Kydd, meanwhile, makes his first start for Sarries since moving from Bath. He will start at fullback and take control of the goal-kicking duties in an effort to let Castaignède concentrate on his own game.

The final change sees Scotland international Russell take over from former French skipper Raphael Ibanez, with the latter being given time to recover from a knock he took in France two weeks ago. Ibanez will start on the bench.

"Again, we’re looking for consistency in our selection as well as in our performance," said Kafer. "I thought we ticked a lot of boxes last weekend in our minimum standards with defence being top of the list.

"In the last five games we’ve only conceded eight tries which is a significant move forward from earlier in the season, but there is still room for improvement.

"Where we let ourselves down was at the set piece and if we let that happen on Saturday we will really pay a high price as Harlequins are one of the best exponents in the Premiership."

Saracens: 15 Robbie Kydd, 14 Richard Haughton, 13 Ben Johnston, 12 Kevin Sorrell, 11 Darragh O’Mahony, 10 Thomas Castaignède, 9 Kyran Bracken, 8 Taine Randell, 7 Richard Hill, 6 Ben Skirving, 5 Craig Yandell, 4 Simon Raiwalui (captain), 3 Ben Broster, Robbie Russell, 1 Steven Sparks.Replacements: 16 Raphael Ibanez, 17 Emiliano Bergamaschi, 18 Kris Chesney, 19 Ben Russell, 20 Morgan Williams, 21 Paul Bailey, 22 Denis Cech.

Kick-off: 15.00 GMT

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