Premiership semi-final preview: European champions Saracens host Leicester as Wasps visit Exeter

Top four face off in the play-offs ahead of the Premiership final at Twickenham on Saturday 28 May

Maro Itoje believes Mark McCall should take major credit for his part in Saracens' recent success (Getty)

Saracens v Leicester Saturday, 12.30pm, BT Sport 1

Maro Itoje has praised the influence of director Mark McCall as the Champions Cup winners seek to retain their Premiership title.

“He's a brilliant man-manager, he knows how to get the best out of his players,“ the England lock said.

”He knows what boxes to tick, he manages his coaches well, he understands the club, he understands what the players need.

“He prepares us unbelievably well each week without fail. He's a very experienced coach and he's been doing this for quite a while now.

“And I think his efforts are paying dividends. I'm fortunate to be part of a special team I think.

Saracens, fresh from last Saturday's Champions Cup final triumph in Lyon, host Leicester at Allianz Park on Saturday, with McCall predictably naming an unchanged team, while Tigers welcome back Manu Tuilagi, Mike Fitzgerald and Brendon O'Connor.

While Saracens prepare for a seventh successive play-off appearance, Leicester have made it 12 seasons in a row, and they can also reflect on reaching nine Premiership finals during the past 11 years.

“Saracens have already had a successful season in Europe. They were in control for most of the [Champions Cup] final and they deserved to win,” Leicester rugby director Richard Cockerill said.

“They've had a big season. We know we have to go there and put everything on the line.

”For us, it is all to do, but we know if we are on our game and play how we can play, then we are certainly good enough.“

“We are in good shape injury-wise and there have been some tough selection choices this week. We all know we need to be at our very best to beat Saracens.”

Saracens are unchanged from the team that beat Racing 92 to win the Champions Cup in Lyon last Saturday, a switch among the replacements sees Neil de Kock providing scrum-half cover instead of Ben Spencer.

England centre Manu Tuilagi returns for Leicester after missing the last two league games because of injury, while Mike Fitzgerald and his fellow flanker Brendon O'Connor are also back for the trip to Allianz Park.

O'Connor has not started since the Champions Cup quarter-final victory over Stade Francais six weeks ago.

Exeter v Wasps Saturday, 3.15pm, BT Sport 1

Dai Young believes his Wasps side will start as underdogs against play-off debutants Exeter on Saturday, as his side return to Sandy Park just three weeks after the Chiefs inflicted a heaviest Premiership defeat of the season on them.

That 24-3 reversal followed a 41-27 home loss against Exeter five months previously, although Wasps won a huge game in between when fly-half Jimmy Gopperth's injury-time conversion secured European Champions Cup quarter-final glory.

Wasps have featured in five previous play-offs, winning four, but it is their first appearance since 2008, when they went on to land the title.

“We are hugely respectful of Exeter and everything they have achieved,” Young said.

“We know we are going in as underdogs, but we're quite comfortable with that.

”When we played at Exeter a few weeks ago, the commitment and attitude was very good but we just didn't have that spring in our step.

“We didn't have any fuel in the tank. I think this will be different. If we do go down, we will go down fighting.

England wing Jack Nowell is determined to see his Exeter side grasp a golden opportunity of reaching next Saturday's Premiership final just six years after being promoted.

“To be here in this situation getting ready to play a semi-final for a place in the final, it would be an awful shame to let that slip,” he said.

Jack Nowell is detemined to help Exeter make their most of their first play-off appearance (Getty)

”But the important thing for us is not to let the occasion get ahead of us. At the end of the day, it is another game of rugby.

“There is a lot riding on it, but a game of rugby is a game of rugby, and once we focus on ourselves and play the way we want it, that's the most important thing.“

Exeter coach Rob Baxter makes a number of changes from the side which beat Harlequins two weeks ago.

Centre Ian Whitten is preferred to Sam Hill, wing Olly Woodburn replaces James Short and there are starts up front for Ben Moon, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Geoff Parling and Don Armand, who starts instead of top try-scorer Thomas Waldrom.

Wales prop Tomas Francis returns on the bench after serving an eight-week ban imposed during this season's Six Nations.

Prop Jake Cooper-Woolley returns from injury for Wasps to pack down alongside Matt Mullan and Carlo Festuccia, with Will Rowlands providing second-row bench cover.

Flanker Thomas Young misses out due to hamstring and shoulder injuries.