Leeds v Leicester: Teams

Former England hooker Andy Titterrell will make his first Guinness Premiership outing for Leeds when they take on Leicester on Sunday.

Titterrell featured in the last two LV= Cup games for Carnegie but has not seen Guinness Premiership action since departing Gloucester at the end of last season.

And head coach Neil Back has praised Titterell's attitude since arriving at Headingley.

"Andy has been extremely patient since arriving at the club while there have not been opportunities for him to play more A team games, because of the weather, and in Europe, because he was not registered," said Back.

"However, that has not dulled his enthusiasm and determination in training to prove his worth."

England Saxons back row Hendre Fourie has been recalled to the Leeds starting XV, while Scott Barrow and Seru Rabeni form a new-look centre partnership.

Scott Hamilton and six other senior internationals have been recalled by Leicester Tigers to take on Carnegie.

Defending champions Tigers are top of the standings after claiming eight wins in the opening 13 rounds of the tournament.

Head coach Richard Cockerill has made several alterations to the side that fell 23-11 to Northampton on LV= Cup duty last weekend, with top try-scorer Hamilton, Lote Tuqiri, Marcos Ayerza, George Chuter and Craig Newby all reinstalled in the line-up.

Dan Hipkiss, Jordan Crane and Ben Youngs will also feature on their return from England service.

Disappointed

"We're without a few senior internationals but we are in decent shape," said Cockerill.

"The next few weeks are really important for us and we have confidence in the squad to pull us through.

"We're disappointed that we are out of the two cups but we are still the English champions and we're top of the Guinness Premiership.

"Leeds is hard place to go and they are fighting for their lives. Neil Back and Andy Key are very good coaches and they'll be well prepared. But we have to focus on what we are doing and we know that when we get it right we are a good team.

"Our away record is not great, but we've gone to Saracens and won and we've won at Harlequins, we are not playing as badly as the stats would like you to think."

Lucas Amorosino and Aaron Mauger are unavailable after suffering injuries against Saints, while Tom Croft and Richard Blaze are two other players ruled out.

Tigers are also without Lewis Moody, Toby Flood, Louis Deacon and Dan Cole, all of whom are on RBS Six Nations England duty.

Leeds: 15 Leigh Hinton, 14 Henry Fa'afili, 13 Seru Rabeni, 12 Scott Barrow, 11 Lee Blackett, 10 Ceiron Thomas, 9 Andy Gomarsall, 1 Mike Macdonald, 2 Andy Titterrell, 3 Juan Gomez, 4 Erik Lund, 5 Marco Wentzel (c), 6 Calum Clark, 7 Hendre Fourie, 8 Rhys Oakley.
Replacements: 16 Vili Ma'asi, 17 Gareth Hardy, 18 Phil Swainston, 19 Kearnan Myall, 20 Alfie To'oala, 21 Scott Mathie, 22 Joe Ford, 23 Richard Welding.

Leicester: 15 Scott Hamilton, 14 Alesana Tuilagi, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 Ben Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 George Chuter, 3 Julian White, 4 Geoff Parling, 5 Ben Kay (c), 6 Craig Newby, 7 Ben Woods, 8 Jordan Crane.
Replacements: 16 Mefin Davies, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Robbie Harris, 19 Calum Green, 20 Brett Deacon, 21 James Grindal, 22 Anthony Allen, 23 Geordan Murphy.