Leicester v Saints: Teams
Leicester Tigers have made four changes to their team for Saturday's Aviva Premiership East Midlands derby with Northampton Saints.
Last Updated: 07/01/11 2:50pm
Leicester Tigers have made four changes to their team for Saturday's Aviva Premiership East Midlands derby with Northampton Saints.
Three of those switches come in the pack where Martin Castrogiovanni is named in the front row, George Skivington gets the nod at lock and Thomas Waldrom returns to the back row with Dan Cole, Ed Slater and Steve Mafi dropping to the bench.
The only change in the back-line sees fly-half Toby Flood come in for Jeremy Staunton to make his first start since the Heineken Cup fixture away to Perpignan in December.
"[These derbies] are always keenly-fought games, the local rivalry is there and also the two teams are up at the top of the table," stated Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
"Saints are a good side, they've been in good form across the season, they've been the best side in the Premiership without a doubt.
"They lost at home last week and that will not have gone down well there. They are a good team and will punish you if you are not at the top of your game.
"We have come through the autumn international and Christmas periods pretty well and we pride ourselves on our consistency."
Mallinder looking for response
Meanwhile, Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder insists his Saints team will have to raise their game if they want to get anything from their trip to Welford Road.
Their home loss to Harlequins allowed Leicester to leapfrog them into top spot in the standings, but Mallinder believes the defeat has focused minds ahead of this weekend's crunch clash.
"We underperformed against Harlequins and there are plenty of players with points to prove this weekend," he said.
"We will certainly have to play a lot better than last week if we want to come home with something. Leicester have been getting good results in the past couple of weeks and have threats all over the field that we will have to watch out for.
"But we know that we can play good rugby as well and everyone has been concentrating on getting back to the levels we expect of ourselves."
There is one enforced change to the Saints' starting line-up from last weekend with Ryan Powell replacing Lee Dickson at scrum-half.
Dickson dislocated a shoulder in the final play of last Saturday's game and has been ruled out for several weeks. Powell's place on the bench has been taken by Stuart Commins.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Matt Smith, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Craig Newby, 6 Thomas Waldrom, 5 George Skivington, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements:16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Dan Cole, 18 Julian White, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Steve Mafi, 21 James Grindal, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Horacio Agulla.
Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Paul Diggin, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Ryan Powell, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Christian Day, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley (capt), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements:16 Brett Sharman, 17 Regardt Dreyer, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Calum Clark, 21 Stuart Commins, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Joe Ansbro.