Saracens v Leicester: Teams
Leicester welcome back captain Louis Deacon for the trip to Premiership leaders Saracens on Saturday.
Last Updated: 01/01/10 2:53pm
Leicester Tigers welcome back captain Louis Deacon for the trip to face Guinness Premiership leaders Saracens at Vicarage Road on Saturday.
Deacon was rested for last weekend's win over Sale Sharks as part of the England Elite Player Squad agreement and returns to join Geoff Parling at lock.
Boris Stankovich and George Chuter start alongside Dan Cole in the front row, and Ben Woods starts his first game since September after his recovery from injury.
England flanker Lewis Moody is rested for the trip south, while Brett Deacon also comes into the back row.
Tigers retain the same backline that started the bonus-point win over Sale Sharks.
Martin Castrogiovanni, Tom Croft, Aaron Mauger, Geordan Murphy and Julian White are unavailable due to injury.
Tough test
Head coach Richard Cockerill told the club's official website: "This is a big part of the season for us with Saracens and London Wasps in the Guinness Premiership then two big games in the Heineken Cup before we go into the Six Nations period.
"We've had two good wins in the last two weeks and we need to maintain a bit of momentum, but Saracens are at the top of the table and we expect a tough test."
League leaders Saracens have made three changes for the visit of Leicester - all in the forwards.
Carlos Nieto, Tom Ryder and Andy Saull all return to the starting line-up while director of rugby Brendan Venter names an unchanged backline for the crunch clash.
Saracens lost for the first time in the Premiership this season at London Irish last weekend, but Venter explained that he expects his side to be a better team because of that defeat.
"You will lose games in sport - that is inevitable," he told the club's official website. "But the test of a good team is how you react and I am sure that we will be a better team for that defeat. We will learn from it.
"We are really looking forward to Saturday's game in front of a big crowd at Vicarage Road. Leicester have an excellent squad of players and have shown with their results this season that they fully intend to defend their title so we know it will be a very hard game."
Saracens; 15 Alex Goode, 14 Rodd Penney, 13 Kameli Ratuvou, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Glen Jackson, 9 Justin Marshall; 1 Matias Aguero, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 3 Carlos Nieto, 4 Steve Borthwick (capt), 5 Tom Ryder, 6 Wikus van Heerden, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Ernst Joubert.
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Justin Melck, 21 Moses Rauluni, 22 Derick Hougaard, 23 Richard Haughton.
Leicester: 15 Scott Hamilton, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs; 1 Boris Stankovich, 2 George Chuter, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Louis Deacon (capt), 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Brett Deacon, 7 Ben Woods, 8 Jordan Crane.
Replacements: 16 Mefin Davies, 17 Robbie Harris
18 Marcos Ayerza, 19 Ben Kay, 20 Craig Newby, 21 James Grindal, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Alesana Tuilagi.