Boris Stankovich and Dan Cole return to Leicester's front-row for Saturday's opening home game of the Aviva Premiership season against Exeter Chiefs.
The only other change to the line-up which started the Round One game at Northampton Saints last Sunday is the inclusion of Jeremy Staunton at fly-half in place of the injured Toby Flood.
Geordan Murphy, who made his 250th start for the club at Franklin's Gardens last weekend, leads out the team on their homecoming, while summer signings George Skivington and Thomas Waldrom start their first league game at Welford Road.
International flanker Tom Croft returns from injury to take his place among the replacements.
"We played some good rugby at times last weekend but there were too many penalties and too many turnovers," said Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
"We scored three good tries and we were still in there fighting right at the end, despite conceding two tries so early on.
"But now we have to look to bounce back and get our first points on the board as quickly as possible."
Meanwhile, whilst many inside Sandy Park last Saturday afternoon toasted a memorable opening day win for Exeter Head Coach Rob Baxter preferred to instead take a more realistic approach to it all.
Having just seen his side claim the scalp of Gloucester 22-10 in their first-ever top flight fixture, Baxter momentarily rejoiced the moment with his players and staff, but then quickly turned his attentions to the next task in hand.
Speaking ahead of this weekend's encounter, Baxter said: "We didn't have to bring anyone down to earth - I think we dealt with it on Saturday very well.
"I'm happy for us to be an emotional team and to show how much we wanted to win, that was fantastic. Literally by the time we were back in the changing room the guys were cooling down. They're not stupid, they realise it's about 22 games and not one."
Whilst Baxter will stick with an unchanged starting line-up for Saturday's clash, he has been forced to make a change on the bench where Samoan international Garrick Cowley is out with a shoulder injury.
And his absence means an instant role for new signing James Honeyben, who has signed a short-term loan deal with the club from National League One side Blackheath.
The former Wasps scrum-half joined up with the Devon club on Thursday as Baxter sought cover following recent injuries to Cowley and fellow newcomer Junior Poluleuligaga.
Other than the setback to Cowley, Baxter was pleased to report no fresh injury concerns following the Gloucester clash last Saturday and also Monday night's A League fixture with Bath.
Form: Leicester Tigers were beaten 19-27 at Northampton on Sunday and in 24 seasons have never begun a season with successive defeats. Tigers have lost just one of their last 34 games in all competitions at Welford Road: 23-32 to Saracens on 8 May. Exeter Chiefs became just the second team after Leeds in 2001 to win their debut Premiership encounter. The Chiefs now bid to emulate Bristol in 2005/06 by being the most recent promoted side to win their opening two Premiership encounters. The two clubs have not met since a 6th round tie in the Powergen Cup on 15 December 2001. Exeter have not beaten Leicester since a 6-0 victory at the old County Ground in April 1966, whilst the Chiefs only previous win at Welford Road was when they defeated Nottingham there 42-11 last November in the Championship.
The teams:
Leicester Tigers:15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Craig Newby, 5 George Skivington , 4 Calum Green, 3 Dan Cole, 2 George Chuter, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 Joe Duffey, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Marcos Ayerza, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Tom Croft, 21 James Grindal, 22 Billy Twelvetrees, 23 Manu Tuilagi.
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Nic Sestaret, 13 Phil Dollman, 12 Bryan Rennie, 11 Mark Foster, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 James Phillips, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 James Hanks, 4 Tom Hayes (c), 3 Hoani Tui, 2 Neil Clark 1 Brett Sturgess.
Replacements: 16 Simon Alcott, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Chris Budgen, 19 Dave Gannon, 20 Chad Slade, 21 James Honeyben, 22 Ryan Davis, 23 Matt Jess.
Date: Saturday, Spetmber 11
Venue: Welford Road
Kick-off: 17.30 BST (16.30 GMT)
Referee: Dean Richards
Comments
Be the first to comment on this story..