Leicester v Toulouse: Teams

Leicester go into Saturday's vital Heineken Cup clash against Toulouse at Welford Road knowing they will probably need to repeat their performance from last year's tournament.

The home side can afford to make no mistakes if they hope to reach the quarter-finals after losing their opening match to Leinster in Dublin.

Last year it was Munster who skinned the Tigers in their first game before they put together seven back-to-back victories until Wasps stopped them in the final

Leicester centre Ollie Smith said: "Although we lost our first game in Europe this season, we just aim to keep going from game to game,.

"We know that if we keep winning each game, then we will go into the quarter-finals, which is what happened last season after we lost to Munster.

"We have given ourselves a chance by claiming a bonus point in our last match against Edinburgh.

"That was important, but for it to count, we have to do well again against Toulouse."

Smith moves onto the wing for Saturday's game to make way for All Blacks star Aaron Mauger, who is set to make his debut in the number 12 shirt.

Mauger will be partnered in midfield by England World Cup centre Dan Hipkiss, while Tom Varndell joins Smith on the opposite wing.

Knocks in last week's match have ruled out England forwards Ben Kay and Lewis Moody, while Benjamin Kayser starts at hooker with George Chuter on the bench.

Marco Wentzel and Luke Abraham play at lock and openside flanker while Seru Rabeni and Martin Castrogiovanni return to the bench after short spells out with injuries.

Meanwhile Toulouse will field Mauger's former All Blacks team-mate Byron Kelleher at scrum-half in a team that has seen nine changes for the match.

The pool leaders elevated Kiwi Kelleher to the starting 15 ahead of Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who kicked the winning conversion that knocked New Zealand out of the 2007 World Cup.

The Elissalde-Gaffie Du Toit partnership has been completely replaced with Valentin Courrent now joining Kelleher at fly-half,

Captain Yannick Jauzion makes a welcome return at centre alongside Florian Fritz, while full back Cédric Heymans moves to the wing

Coach Guy Noves has made six changes to his pack as he looks to nullify the threat from Leicester's dominant forwards.

The teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Sam Vesty, 14 Ollie Smith, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Tom Varndell; 10 Andy Goode, 9 Frank Murphy; 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 3 Julian White, 4 Louis Deacon, 5 Marco Wentzel, 6 Martin Corry (c), 7 Luke Abraham, 8 Jordan Crane.

Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 James Hamilton, 19 Tom Croft, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Johne Murphy, 22 Seru Rabeni.

Toulouse: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Yannick Jauzion (c), 12 Florian Fritz, 11 Cédric Heymans; 10 Valentin Courrent, 9 Byron Kelleher; 1 Daan Human, 2 William Servat, 3 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 4 Fabien Pelous, 5 Patricio Albacete, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 7 Thierry Dusatoir, 8 Shaun Sowerby.

Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 Omar Hasan, 18 Romain Millo-Chlusky, 19 Grégory Lamboley, 20 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 21 Maleli Kunavore, 22 Maxime Medard.