'Big game' Lozowski ready for England return - McCall

Alex Lozowski has five England caps but has not played for the national team since 2018

"Rising to the occasion" in Saracens' biggest games shows Alex Lozowski can perform at the highest level for England, Sarries director of rugby Mark McCall says.

Lozowski could win his first international cap in six years after Steve Borthwick called the 31-year-old up to his 36-player squad for England's autumn internationals.

Versatile Lozowski has been selected alongside centre Luke Northmore, of Harlequins, and Bath's Ollie Lawrence for the fixtures against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan.

He won the last of his five caps against Japan in 2018 but he always believed he was good enough to earn a recall for his country, club boss McCall said.

"My memory of Alex is how well he's played in some of the really, really big games," he said.

"In finals, some of the European semi-finals he's played, he has always risen to those occasions and I know he's worked hard to get that chance [again] to do that on the international stage.

"He's the kind of player who loves those occasions and will play his best rugby."

'He could have cruised'

Lozowski joined Saracens in 2016 and has won three Premiership titles and two European Champions Cups with the north London club

Lozowski began his career at Leeds before moving to Wasps in 2014.

He joined Saracens two years later and has made 177 appearances for the club, winning three Premiership titles and two European Champions Cups, including the double in 2018-19.

Lozowski scored inside two minutes in Saracens' 57-33 Premiership semi-final win against Wasps on the way to winning the title in 2017-18.

He spent the 2020-21 season on loan at Montpellier after Saracens had been relegated to the Championship for breaching salary cap rules.

Playing at outside centre, Lozowski kicked 22 points in Saracens' 45-26 win over Sale Sharks last month.

"He's 31 now and he could have been forgiven for cruising a little bit if he thought that [adding to his international caps] was unattainable for him, but he didn't," McCall said.

"He thought he was good enough to play at that level and he's put a huge amount of work into his pre-season. He's in as good shape as he's been and he's played well enough to deserve the chance."

Bristol present 'unique' challenge

Saracens face early Premiership leaders Bristol Bears on Saturday following their first defeat of the season at rivals Harlequins on Sunday.

Quins' 17-10 victory ended a dominant run of eight consecutive derby-day wins for Sarries and McCall said he expected a different type of match at Ashton Gate.

Bristol have also won three of their opening four matches and are one point and one place above the north Londoners.

The Bears are the league's leading scorers with 141 points, having averaged 39 over their last three games.

"This is a unique challenge in a way, with the way they play and the shape with which they attack," McCall said.

"They're causing teams all sorts of problems. Even with 15 minutes to go at the weekend they were well behind but they came back and scored four tries [to beat Exeter Chiefs 40-35] in a very short space of time."

Bristol fought back from 20 points down to beat Exeter at the weekend