WARRIORS will be without first-choice tighthead prop Euan Murray for Sunday’s Aviva Premiership clash with Saracens at Allianz Park due to his religious beliefs.

The Scottish international front-rower refuses to play rugby on Sundays and will be replaced in the Worcester number three jersey by John Andress for the clash with the league-leaders.

Sixways head coach Richard Hill said: “I don’t think there will be many changes to the team that played against Exeter – I was pretty happy with the way we played by and large and keeping continuity is important.

“John will come in for Euan, who doesn’t like to play on Sundays because of his religious beliefs and we respect that.

“John will start at tighthead and I might make one, possibly two, changes to the starting line-up, but not too much.”

Murray’s loss could be keenly felt by Warriors this weekend as the artificial pitch at Saracens’ new home enables scrums to function more efficiently than on real turf and the set-piece will be a key battle ground.

In fact, scrummaging has become such a lottery this season with most engagements ending with an arbitrary free-kick of penalty to either side, Hill admits his players rarely rehearse set moves off the scrum.

“On the new artificial pitch at Saracens’ ground, there are very few re-set scrums,” Hill said. “Throughout the course of this year, we’ve done virtually no practice of three-quarter moves from scrums because they normally end in free-kicks or penalties, so it is a waste of time.

“This week, however, we’ve done a lot of it, because the scrums don’t collapse as much and I’ve noticed teams are having a lot more opportunities to attack from scrums. We’ll also have to make sure our scrum defence is good.”