Leicester v Gloucester: Teams
Leicester are strengthened by the return of several influential players for Saturday's encounter with Gloucester.
Last Updated: 19/02/10 2:00pm
Leicester are strengthened by the return of several influential players for Saturday's Guinness Premiership encounter with Gloucester.
Club captain Geordan Murphy is ready for a place in the starting XV after appearances from the bench in the last two games on his return from injury.
Meanwhile, Toby Flood, Louis Deacon and Martin Castrogiovanni are all back from international duty and selected to play.
"It's great to have Geordan back fit again, and to have Toby Flood and Louis Deacon available for us this weekend," declared Tigers head coach Richard Cockerill.
"We got Dan Hipkiss, Jordan Crane and Ben Youngs back from the England camp too and that's all good news for us.
"There are only eight league games left for us and every point is going to be important."
Also in the starting line-up at centre is Anthony Allen who will take on his former club, but England internationals Dan Cole and Lewis Moody are unavailable and the league leaders are without the injured Lucas Amorosino, Richard Blaze, Tom Croft, Ben Kay, Aaron Mauger and Julian White.
Simpson-Daniel out for Gloucester
Gloucester head to Welford Road without the services of winger James Simpson-Daniel which has forced coach Bryan Redpath to make changes to his back-line.
Simpson-Daniel sustained a knock during last week's triumph over Harlequins and is replaced by Tom Voyce.
The other change from the thumping 46-6 win over Quins sees Scotland international scrum-half Rory Lawson return to resume his partnership with Nicky Robinson at half-back.
Redpath is remaining cautious despite his side's recent improvement, stating: "We have to be careful not to get too carried away because Leicester have beaten us in the past and then, after these defeats, we've been criticised.
"We need to measure ourselves to see where we're really at. It will be interesting to see how far we've come along but not be derailed if things don't work out."
Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs; 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 Mefin Davies, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 4 Louis Deacon (captain), 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Craig Newby, 7 Ben Woods, 8 Jordan Crane
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Robbie Harris, 19 Calum Green, 20 Brett Deacon, 21 James Grindal, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Alesana Tuilagi
Gloucester: Olly Morgan; Tom Voyce, Tim Molenaar, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu; Lesley Vainikolo; Nicky Robinson, Rory Lawson; Nick Wood, Olivier Azam, Greg Somerville; Dave Attwood, Alex Brown; Luke Narraway, Akapusi Qera, Gareth Delve (captain)
Replacements: Scott Lawson, Alasdair Dickinson, Pierre Capdevielle, Adam Eustace, Andrew Hazell, Andy Williams, Tim Taylor, Charlie Sharples