Dylan Hartley and Jamie George will collide at Stadium MK on Sunday with the aim of seizing a final opportunity to impress British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland.
The rival England hookers start for Northampton and Saracens respectively in a head-to-head that could have a significant bearing on selection for the New Zealand-bound squad, which is named only 72 hours later.
Gatland is expected to pick three hookers, with Ireland's Rory Best and Ken Owens of Wales also in contention, meaning that one of the four will miss out.
George is England's form player in the number two jersey and captains Saracens this weekend, but he plays second fiddle to Hartley, who leads the RBS 6 Nations champions under Eddie Jones.
Another Saracens player hoping to catch Gatland's eye is George Kruis, who makes his first appearance since December after overcoming a knee injury to take his place in the starting XV.
Having recovered from a fractured cheekbone, Kruis missed the Six Nations when forced to undergo knee surgery, but he remains a genuine Lions contender on the strength of his past performances and line-out expertise.
"George has been pretty phlegmatic about the injuries he's had this season. What else can he do? He has been enormously helpful to the team," Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said.
"He's a very intelligent line-out operator and he's been very helpful over the last couple of months, making sure we're as well planned and thorough as we possibly could have been.
"He's really helped us in that regard and we're really looking forward to getting him back out on the pitch."
Saracens will continue their push for a home play-off without Mako Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell, Richard Wigglesworth and Brad Barritt, who are being rested with the seismic Champions Cup semi-final against Munster scheduled only six days later.
Billy Vunipola and Chris Ashton are named on the bench, but South African flanker Schalk Burger returns from a calf problem against a Northampton team whose hopes of finishing in the top four are fading.
Leicester and Bath appear best positioned to grab the last available Premiership semi-final spot and the old rivals are both in action on Saturday.
Matt O'Connor presides over a Tigers match at Welford Road for the first time since his return to the club when Newcastle visit the East Midlands, just seven days after his team fell to a 27-21 defeat by Bath at Twickenham.
"This game is about winning," said O'Connor, when asked if Leicester would seek a bonus-point victory against the Falcons.
"We are fortunate in the sense that we got a point against Bath and that our for/against is okay, so we are looking at fixing the things that are below par in our performance.
"We need to make sure we bring an energy and tempo to the game, putting us in position to score as many points as possible.
"We have got three games to play and we have got to get as many points as we can to make sure we get into the four."
Bath are unchanged for their showdown with Worcester at the Recreation Ground, while Gloucester's home clash with Sale completes Saturday's fixtures.
Source: PA
