Saracens captain Alistair Hargreaves believes consistency of personnel can aid the Allianz Park side as they kick off their Premiership title defence at home to Sale Sharks on Saturday (kick-off 2pm).

The South African second row, who leads the Men in Black for the second season as skipper, told the club's website: "Consistency in personnel is key to us.

"Since I’ve been at the club we’ve had the same coaching staff and had very little turnover of players.

"We all know the ropes, we all know what’s expected of each other and that really helps us out in terms of keeping the team as consistent as possible."

He continued: "We can be quite happy with our form over the last few seasons, we’ve just got to be consistent, keep working hard at the things we do well and our ethos of the pride we take in certain things.

"If we do that then we we’ll there or thereabouts come the end of the season."

Looking ahead to the visit of Sale, Hargreaves added: "This week we’ve had an eye on the opening game for the first time in training.

"It will be a big start, Sale are well settled side and they had a great season last year, and we know because we played them four times!

“It’s a big challenge but like every game, and much like last year, it’s a very competitive Premiership this season and we’ll be challenged week-in-week-out.”