Leicester v London Irish: Teams

Aaron Mauger takes the captain's armband after missing the victory at Gloucester on the opening day of the season when he pipcked up a late knock.

Mauger slips neatly into the centre with Matt Smith switching to the wing as replacement for Alesana Tuilagi, who has failed to recover from an injury that saw him limp off at half-time at Kingsholm.

Toby Flood makes his Welford Road debut after the summer switch from Newcastle but Martin Corry, Derick Hougaard, Martin Castrogiovanni, Lewis Moody and Louis Deacon remain sidelined through injury. Seru Rabeni is suspended.

London Irish make two changes from the starting XV that set up the opening day victory over Wasps.

Veteran utility back Mike Catt, so influential as fly-half last week, is unavailable through injury so Eoghan Hickey takes the number 10 jersey, while Tonga Lea'aetoa starts at lose head prop in place of Alex Corbisiero, who is named among the replacements.

Elvis Sevialii who joined from Sale Sharks last month, is named on the bench for the first time, as is lock forward Nick Rouse.

"Our Premiership campaign got off to a good start last Saturday," said head coach Tony Booth. "The players performed well on a big stage and have every right to be pleased with their performance.

"However, there is no time to enjoy the victory as we face an equally stern test tomorrow."

Leicester:
15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger (c), 11 Matt Smith, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis, 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 George Chuter, 3 Julian White, 4 Richard Blaze, 5 Ben Kay, 6 Tom Croft, 7 Ben Herring, 8 Jordan Crane.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Dan Cole, 18 Marco Wentzel, 19 Ben Woods, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Sam Vesty, 22 Johne Murphy.

London Irish:
15 Peter Hewat, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Delon Armitage, 12 Seilala Mapusua 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10. Eoghan Hickey, 9. Paul Hodgson (capt), 1 Tonga Lea'aetoa, 2 Danie Coetzee, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 4 Nick Kennedy, 5 Gary Johnson, 6 Richard Thorpe, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia.
Replacements: 16 Alex Corbisiero, 17 David Paice, 18 Nick Rouse, 19 Declan Danaher, 20 Jonathon Fisher, 21 Peter Richards, 22 Elvis Sevialii.