England men’s captain Maro Itoje is relishing his return to domestic duty as Saracens host Harlequins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.

The lock is one of several internationals, including Jamie George – fresh from winning his 100th England cap – and Elliot Daly, who are now back with Sarries following the recent Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

The 30-year-old is a big fan of The Showdown as a concept and is expecting an almighty London derby at one of Europe’s premier sporting arenas.

“When the fixtures come out at the start of the season, this is always one that you circle straight away,” he said.

“To run out at this amazing stadium in front of so many fans is a memory that stays with us for a long time and there is enormous excitement amongst the squad about the occasion.  

“Coming back into the club earlier this week was great, and it is always special to have everyone reunited for what is a massive run of games coming up.  

“Our matches against Harlequins are always huge and with so much riding on this game in terms of the league I’m sure Saturday will be no exception. 

"They showed their quality when we played them earlier in the season, so we know we’ll need to be at our best in Tottenham.” 

In the reverse fixture at The Stoop in October, Billy Millard’s side came out on top as tries from Fin Baxter and Lennox Anyanwu contributed towards a 17-10 win.

During that game, Quins produced a solid defensive showing and when asked if he was preparing for another rearguard effort, director of rugby Mark McCall said the most important thing was to reintegrate his squad after the recent break.

“Yes, we are ready, but everything is going to be important this week,” he said.

“It has been a long break for all the clubs and the challenge for us and them is to get all the international players back in and playing.

“We have had some under-20s players out, some other players grafting away and some players coming back from injury, so it is all about trying to knit all those parts of the squad back together.”

McCall is also confident his team, who are one place and one point away from the play-off places, will not be overawed when playing at the Premier League venue having enjoyed their previous visits to the ground including a 52-7 win over Quins a year ago.

“The players who are going to play this weekend, almost all of them have played there over the last three years so they have some idea of what to expect,” he continued.

“We only came in as a squad on Tuesday this week, that was to give the international players an extra day of down time, and the last day and half as been about connecting the squad up again.

“So, we have not talked too much about where we will be playing but we have spoken about what we are going to do once we get there.

“It is a game we are really looking forward to. The lads have put a lot of effort in to hopefully make it a special day and everyone is excited to get back playing in the Premiership.”

McCall has selected the returning George at hooker with Fiji’s Eroni Mawi and Italy’s Marco Riccioni flanking him at loosehead prop and tighthead prop respectively.

Itoje captains from the engine room alongside former Harlequin Hugh Tizard and Tom Willis, fresh from an impressive Six Nations, starts at No. 8, with Theo McFarland and Juan Martin Gonzalez starting in the flanker roles.

South African Ivan van Zyl and Fergus Burke get the nod to continue their half back partnership and Nick Tompkins returns to partner Alex Lozowski in the midfield.

Rotimi Segun starts on the left wing, with Tobias Elliott, fresh from scoring a hattrick against Edinburgh last Friday night, on the right as Elliot Daly completes the line up at full-back.