England captain Steve Borthwick believes this season could herald the start of an influx of Saracens players following him into the international set-up.

The former Bath lock has been hugely impressed by the talents of English youngsters Noah Cato, Alex Goode, Andy Saull, Adam Powell and Tom Mercey and feels their performances will soon be recognised by the national coaching staff.

Sarries have struggled to get major representation for England in recent years but a player who is at the heart of the national side is convinced this is set to change.

Ahead of his second season at Vicarage Road, Borthwick said: "If you go back 12 months there was one player. Now there are three in the top two squads, with Brad Barritt and Tom Mercey. Then you have a look at the likes of Saull, Goode, Cato and more players who can push on and push for internationals.

"It's great we have got those guys and what we can do is just concentrate upon what we do on the field. If we do that well then I'm sure the England selectors will take note.

"I think the whole senior group within the players, with the likes of Wikus van Heerden, Glen Jackson, Justin Marshall, Neil de Kock and Ernst Joubert, have a plethora of experience and it's a real asset to have those numbers of senior players. It’s our responsibility as senior players to bring on the younger players.

"Right now you look at the younger players and they're pushing everybody around them because they're playing that well.

"As senior players it's up to us to make sure our standards are high and having that hunger and competition among the group pushes the team on."

Last season was a mixed affair for the forward after he led his country, amid significant criticism over his selection, yet failed to guide the Men in Black into the Heineken Cup.

But Borthwick remains confident about the new campaign and insists the club are on the brink of a major breakthrough.

He said: "I think it's a really exciting time at the club. You can see some big changes going on.

"I think off the field the guys are doing a fantastic job and the supporters we have are superb. You can see when we sell out Vicarage Road there are many more supporters out there for Saracens. What we can do as players is make sure we win on the pitch. Nigel Wray, Edward Griffiths and Brendan Venter are doing a great job with the off the field things. We need to make sure we take care of things on the field.

"Without commenting on the past, I think we've developed a really tight group and I think everyone who has come in is really committed to the cause of what we're trying to achieve at Saracens.

"I've seen guys working extremely hard and enjoying themselves as well representing the Saracens shirt. I think that's a really positive aspect."

Sarries secured six wins out of six during pre-season but the aspect which impressed the skipper the most was the team's ability to alter their playing style. Borthwick thinks their flexibility will pay off during a gruelling season in the Guinness Premiership, Anglo-Welsh Cup and European Challenge Cup.

"I think what was important, as nice as it was to get the wins, at this moment in time is that we keep improving our performances," he explained.

"I think you saw that against Nottingham. We've improved our performances, it's great we've won and got into winning positions, but we’ve also improved steadily.

"We've seen where errors have been highlighted and areas to improve and we've gone about changing them and that has been a really pleasing thing.

"There has been some really good rugby and I think what we also saw was the ability to play different types; scoring close, scoring wide and our kicking game. I think we saw a real good variety to the way we played and it is very encouraging."

New director of rugby Venter was quick to appoint Borthwick as captain and the England man has taken to the South African. He pin-points his enthusiasm and leadership as two of the most impressive qualities of the former London Irish coach.

Borthwick said: "I've been hugely impressed by Brendan. I think his enthusiasm for the game is contagious amongst the group, he is a person that inspires those around us. He gives the group great leadership and there is great detail from the whole management team.

"Brendan's the director of rugby and he's the one who leads us in terms of setting out what we can achieve but I think he's right in terms of concentrating as players on doing the right thing for that week.

"We just talked in the changing room about doing the next right thing and constantly preparing to be better. Each time we go to training to improve and each week as the season progresses we get better. Ultimately if we do that to the best of our ability then the season will take care of itself."

Borthwick feels the squad has been strengthened over the summer and believes Sarries are ready to challenge for trophies this time round.

On the most impressive new performers he remarked: "I think there have been many. Joubert has been excellent, Schalk Brits has been superb and Ethienne Reyneke, who we haven't seen much of because of his groin injury, is excellent. I think there are a lot of high quality players and Michael Horak we know because he has already proved himself in the Premiership for London Irish.

"Schalk is clearly an exciting player. He is very good in the tight and also in the loose. He is a very special talented player and it's great to have him as part of Saracens."

The Men in Black were beaten at Twickenham last season by Harlequins, and could not mount a challenge at the top of the Premiership table, so Borthwick knows the importance of a good start in setting the tone for the long haul.

He said: "It's obviously really important. You can't win the Premiership in the first few weeks but you can certainly go a long way to being on a good path. That's what we need to do and get off to a good start.

"Our focus is to improve each time we go out to train and be a better team. We've made that progress in the pre-season games and now we need to make another step up," the captain of club and country declared.