Leicester v Leinster: Teams

Leinster travel to Welford Road on Saturday knowing that a win could be good enough for them to qualify for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

Leicester cannot progress after their last Pool Six defeat to Edinburgh at Marrayfield - however head coach Marcelo Loffreda is demanding a solid response from his side.

If Tolouse beat Edinburgh then it is unlikely that Leinster will qualify, and Tigers coach Loffreda is aiming to put an abrupt end to the Irish side's european dream.

The Argentinian head coach is boosted by the news that Martin Castrogiovanni and Seru Rabeni both return from injury to take their place in the Tigers team.

Castrogiovanni missed last weekend's defeat to Edinburgh and will start as loosehead prop, while Rabeni who has been absent for two weeks will wear the number 12 shirt.

Frank Murphy starts as scrum-half in place of Christophe Laussucq, however the rest of the backline is the same as the one which featured at Murrayfield.

Tigers are without their influential skipper Martin Corry and England international Lewis Moody through injury. Dan Hipkiss, Aaron Mauger and loose forward Tom Croft are also in the treatment room.

"We have picked the best team available," said Tigers head coach Marcelo Loffreda.

"We have a lot of trust and belief in this team. We trust in all the squad and we go into this game with a lot of confidence in this team.

"We are going to look for what we look for in every game. It doesn't matter now if we have the option or not of qualifying.

"This is important for our pride, for the club, for the spectators and, most of all, for ourselves."

Must-win

Leinster's Leo Cullen will make his 50th Heineken Cup appearance on Saturday against his former club.

The powerful second row will partner Ireland colleague Malcolm O'Kelly in the scrum for Saturday's must-win game.

It will also be an emotional day for the visitors scrum-half Guy Easterby, who will start his 64th and final game for Leinster.

The influential Felipe Contepomi will return at half-back in the only change to the backline that started the 20-13 victory over Toulouse last weekend.

The deadly duo of skipper Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy will patrol the centre's - and the Leinster pack isn't shuffled too much with Stephen Keogh coming in for Keith Gleeson in the back-row with Shane Jennings moving to openside flanker.

Gleeson is named on a strong replacements bench with returning Springbok prop Ollie le Roux as well as Cian Healy and Jonathan Sexton.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Ollie Smith, 12 Seru Rabeni, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Herring, 6 Brett Deacon, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Julian White, 2 Benjamin Kasyser, 1 Martin Castrogiovanni.

Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Dave Young, 19 Ben Kay, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Ian Humphreys, 22 Ayoola Erinle.

Leinster: 15 Girvan Dempsey, 14 Luke Fitzgerald, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Rob Kearney, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 9 Guy Easterby, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Stephen Keogh, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Stephen Knoop, 2 Bernard Jackman, 1 Stan Wright.

Replacements: 16 Ollie Le Roux, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Cameron Jowitt, 19 Keith Gleeson, 20 Chris Keane, 21 Jonny Sexton, 22 Brian Blaney.