Lawes and Biggar to make history as Saints duo square up at Twickenham

It is the first time in the 142-year history of Saints that two of their players will face off as captains of their countries.

And it is only the sixth time in history that both captains in a Five/Six Nations fixture are from the same club.

Lawes has returned from injury to lead England, taking over from Tom Curry, who had skippered the Red Rose in their opening two Six Nations matches.

Biggar has also managed to shake off an injury, having suffered a dead leg while steering Wales past Scotland in their previous game.

It means Saturday will be an extremely special day for Saints as the celebrates the achievements of two of its star players.

England boss Eddie Jones said: "We’ve prepared very well for this game, the squad have really come together on and off the pitch.

“Wales are a good, tough side and Six Nations champions and it will make for an exciting Test match in front of a full Twickenham crowd.

“We’ve got a talented, young, hungry squad who have trained with real intensity this week. We’re ready to go at them and can’t wait to play in front of our supporters again.

“It will also be a special match with two significant milestones for Ben and Kyle, both of who have made outstanding contributions to English rugby so far in their careers. We congratulate them and we know there is more to come ahead for them.”

Wales boss Wayne Pivac said: "“We’re very pleased to have the experienced Toby Faletau back. He’s trained well during the week and got 80 minutes under his belt last week. From our point of view he brings a lot of experience so we’re very excited to have Toby back.

“I’m also really pleased for Alex Cuthbert to get fifty Tests for his country. It’s a massive achievement. And it’s also great to have Josh Adams back from injury. They are two good players. That means Louis Rees-Zammit is the unfortunate one this week that misses out. But we’ve looked at the opposition we’re playing and niggly injuries that players pick up from time to time and we think that in this particular match, the way the game will go, that Alex and Josh are the right selection

“Clearly everyone loves playing at home and it’s a first home game of the Guinness Six Nations for England. They will be tough opposition, they always are and both teams are still in this competition so there’s a lot at stake.

“It’s a big game. We had a great result against them last year but we’re going to have to play very, very well to get the same result this year.

“We played well against Scotland, but we’ve challenged the boys to make sure that we have that same effort away from home this week.”

England team to face Wales: Steward; Malins, Slade, Tuilagi, Nowell; Smith, Randall; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Sinckler; Ewels, Itoje; Lawes (c), Curry, Dombrandt.

Replacements: George, Marler, Stuart, Isiekwe, Simmonds, Youngs, Ford, Daly.

Wales team to face England: L Williams; Cuthbert, Watkin, Tompkins, Adams; Biggar (c), T Williams; Jones, Elias, Francis; Rowlands, Beard; Moriarty, Basham, Faletau.

Replacements: Lake, Thomas, Brown, Davies, Morgan, Hardy, Anscombe, Davies.

Five/Six Nations captains from the same club in the same fixture

Liverpool on 22/2/1913 at Inverleith: Freddie Turner (SC) Dickie Lloyd (IR).

Liverpool on 14/2/1914 at Twickenham: Ronald Poulton-Palmer (EN) Dickie Lloyd (IR).

Toulouse on 26/2/2005 at Stade de France: Fabien Pelous (FR) Gareth Thomas (WA)

Stade Francais on 3/2/2013 at Rome: Sergio Parisse (IT) & Pascal Pape (FR)

Stade Francais on 9/2/2014 at Stade de France: Pascal Pape (FR) & Sergio Parisse (FR)