Leicester v L Irish: Teams

Leicester welcome back club captain Geordan Murphy from RBS Six Nations action for their Guinness Premiership clash against London Irish.

Murphy has been named at full-back after representing Ireland at Twickenham last Saturday, while Toby Flood and Martin Castrogiovanni also return from international duty.

Scott Hamilton switches to the wing to make room for Murphy, while Flood steps in at fly-half and Lote Tuqiri makes his final appearance for the club before heading back to Australia next week.

Castrogiovanni is named at tighthead prop, while Calum Green takes over from injured Ben Kay in the second row as the only other change to the Tigers side that was defeated 19-3 at Northampton last weekend.

"We played poorly at Northampton last week, our standards are higher than that, and the manner of the defeat hurts," said head coach Richard Cockerill.

"But we move on and we are still a good team, we are still the defending champions.

"We didn't like losing last week and we have to do everything we can to bounce back.

"Irish are a good side, they play with some width, their back-rowers are very direct and very good over the ball, and they have some stand-out performers across the pitch. If you make mistakes or if you are not on top of your game, they can punish you."

Injury

As well as Kay, Lucas Amorosino, Richard Blaze, Dan Hipkiss and Aaron Mauger are sidelined with injury, while England trio Dan Cole, Louis Deacon and Lewis Moody are unavailable.

Back-rower Tom Croft is named on the bench after recovering from injury.

Meanwhile, Paul Hodgson returns from playing for England to take his place in London Irish's starting XV for the game at Welford Road.

Hodgson starts at scrum-half as Ryan Lamb returns to his usual fly-half position, while John Rudd comes into the team on the right wing in place of injured Topsy Ojo.

The only other change to side that beat Harlequins 29-14 at home last weekend is in the front row, where James Buckland starts at hooker.

"It was great to get a good win in front of our home crowd at the Madejski Stadium last Sunday," said head coach Toby Booth.

"Leicester will be smarting after their defeat to Northampton Saints, so we have to be mindful of that. They are top of the table at the moment, but we've made significant improvements in recent weeks, and this will be a great opportunity to measure that improvement."

Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Lote Tuqiri, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 Mefin Davies, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 4 Calum Green, 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Craig Newby, 7 Ben Woods, 8 Jordan Crane.

Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Julian White, 19 Brett Deacon, 20 Tom Croft, 21 James Grindal, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Matt Smith.

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 John Rudd, 13 Elvis Seveali'i, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Peter Hewat, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Paul Hodgson, 1 Dan Murphy, 2 James Buckland, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 4 Nick Kennedy, 5 Bob Casey (c), 6 George Stowers, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia.

Replacements: 16 Danie Coetzee, 17 Max Lahiff, 18 Paulica Ion, 19 Kieran Roche, 20 Jamie Gibson, 21 Chris Malone, 22 Mike Catt, 23 Jamie Lennard.