Richard Wigglesworth will start for Leicester against his former club, ahead of Ben Youngs, at the grand old age of 39.
Steve Borthwick sprung a surprise by relegating England’s most-capped player to the bench and giving the No9 shirt instead to his player-coach.
No explanation was offered but it is possible the emotion of the past week - with Ben losing his sister-in-law to cancer shortly before playing in the semi-final - has taken a toll.
For Tigers it is the chance to win an 11th title, but their first since Borthwick took over a club on its knees two years ago.
Dan Cole, one of only a couple of Leicester players old enough to remember the good times, was asked to pinpoint the low point in Tigers’ fall.
“Sitting in the home changing room on a Friday night in March 2019 after losing to Northampton,” he replied.
Tigers were second bottom, unable to buy a win and in grave danger of relegation for the first time in their proud history.
“Basically we’d thrown everything at it and we’d lost,” said Cole. “We sat there and thought, ‘we’re stuffed’.
“We’d thrown everything into it, everyone in the room had tried as hard as they can and we still couldn’t get a result.”
It all came down to the clash of the bottom two a month later when Leicester found a way to beat Newcastle and send them down instead.
“That season taught us how tough it is to win one game and how fortunate we are now to play in a side that week in week out finds a way to win,” Cole said. “I definitely appreciate the success more now.”
Leicester: Steward; Ashton, Moroni, Porter, Potter; Ford, Wigglesworth; Genge (capt), Montoya, Cole, Chessum, Green, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese.
Replacements: Clare, Leatigaga, Heyes, Wells, Martin, Youngs, Burns, Scott.
Saracens: Goode; Malins, Daly, Tompkins, Maitland; Farrell (capt), Davies; M Vunipola, George, Koch, Itoje, Isiekwe, McFarland, Earl, B Vunipola.
Replacements: Pifeleti, Mawi, Clarey, Wray, Christie, Van Zyl, Taylor, Lozowski.
Referee: Wayne Barnes.
