Leicester v Worcester: Teams
Leicester welcome back Geordan Murphy, Benjamin Kayser and Martin Castrogiovanni to face Worcester on Saturday.
Last Updated: 20/02/09 1:45pm
Geordan Murphy, Benjamin Kayser and Martin Castrogiovanni return from Six Nations duty to take their places in the Leicester Tigers line-up for Saturday's Guinness Premiership home game against Worcester Warriors.
George Chuter, Julian White and Tom Croft are included among the replacements after being released back to the club by the England management.
Murphy's return means a switch to the wing for Scott Hamilton, who scored the opening try against London Wasps last Sunday.
Matt Smith moves from the wing to join captain Aaron Mauger at centre in the absence of Seru Rabeni who picked up a knee injury at Wasps.
Marcos Ayerza joins Kayser and Castrogiovanni in the front row, with the rest of the pack retaining their places from last week.
Momentum
"The boys stuck at it really well at Wasps and dug in to take two bonus points," said acting head coach Richard Cockerill.
"We played some good stuff but we made some basic errors and coughed up some soft points, which we've looked at and addressed this week.
"It will be great to get back on home ground after a month away from Welford Road. We need to build on last Sunday's performance and build momentum now to the end of the season."
Worcester's Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock makes a total of five changes to his starting line-up with Matt Powell named at scrum-half.
Darren Morris, Chris Fortey and Craig Gillies all come into the pack as Ruddock looks to keep his squad fresh ahead of a busy schedule of rugby in the coming weeks.
"We have had a tough two games and in those the team has made 271 tackles. When you look at the work that our front five have faced it becomes obvious that, with the next four games being of huge magnitude, we needed to share the load before we arrive at the Bristol game," said Ruddock.
Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Aaron Mauger (c), 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Sam Vesty, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Craig Newby, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Julian White, 18 Tom Croft, 19 Brett Deacon, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Ayoola Erinle, 22 Johne Murphy.
Worcester: 15 Willie Walker, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 12 Loki Crichton, 11 Marcel Garvey, 10 Joe Carlisle, 9 Matt Powell, 8 Kai Horstmann, 7 Pat Sanderson (c), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Craig Gillies, 4 Will Bowley, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 2 Chris Fortey, 1 Darren Morris.
Replacements: 16 Matt Mullan, 17 Aleki Lutui, 18 Greg Rawlinson, 19 Netani Talei, 20 Ryan Powell, 21 Alex Grove, 22 Miles Benjamin.