Preview: Gloucester v Leicester

Leicester loose forward Jordan Crane returns from injury ahead of Saturday's Premiership trip to face Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Leicester loose forward Jordan Crane returns from injury to join the Tigers matchday squad for the first time this season ahead of Saturday's Aviva Premiership trip to face Gloucester.

England international Crane returns after regaining fitness following an ankle injury in the pre-season fixture against Munster. He has been given a place among the replacements as Thomas Waldrom retains the number eight shirt.

Director of rugby Richard Cockerill also includes scrum-half Jason Spice among the replacements after his arrival on a short-term loan with Ben Youngs unavailable and Sam Harrison injured.

James Grindal, Billy Twelvetrees, Ben Woods and Martin Castrogiovanni come into the starting XV as Youngs, Toby Flood, Tom Croft and Dan Cole are on England duty. Marcos Ayerza returns to the front row following injury to Boris Stankovich.

Meanwhile, where possible, Gloucester Head Coach Bryan Redpath has kept faith with the majority of the side that defeated Harlequins at Kingsholm last weekend.
However, he is forced to reshuffle his midfield where the young tyros, Henry Trinder and Jonny May, will team up while Rory Lawson returns at scrum half.
The front row is unchanged with Paul Doran-Jones released from the England training camp. However, Jim Hamilton's return from injury is timely with Dave Attwood retained by England.
Alasdair Strokosch has been ruled out of Scotland's November campaign with a knee injury so is sidelined. Luke Narraway takes over at blindside and takes over the captaincy and Andy Hazell is back at openside having recovered from illness.
Even after three Premiership wins in a row which have moved his side into fourth place in the table, and unbeaten at Kingsholm in the Premiership for over a year, Redpath knows what a challenge the Tigers will present.
“We're fairly confident at the moment but there's certainly no arrogance or complacency,” he said.
At Kingsholm, we believe that we have a bit of an asset in the Shed and the home crowd in general who are phenomenal for us but we don't think we're invincible.”
“Leicester are a good side and they are the benchmark that you chase each year. They very rarely lose games by more than ten points.”
“We're going in in good health. We have some knocks like everyone else does but whoever plays on the day just has to get on with it. It's an opportunity for whoever plays to put their hand up against a well respected side.”
“For 50 minutes last week, we were as good as we've been for a few years. We had six or seven minutes of dull performance when we made some errors and had the yellow cards so we still need to be more consistent and more attritional when we need to be.”

Form: Gloucester have tallied three successive victories in Aviva Premiership Rugby. Gloucester are unbeaten at Kingsholm in their last 15 matches in all competitions since Cardiff Blues won there in the Anglo-Welsh Cup on 8 November. All six games Leicester Tigers have played in the Premiership this season have been won by the home team on the day. Tigers' have not been victorious away from home in the competition since round 20 last season with a 31-7 win at Newcastle. Gloucester's only victory in their last half a dozen encounters with Leicester was 12-9 in this equivalent fixture last season. Tigers have won on three of their last four visits to Kingsholm.

The teams:

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Jonny May, 11 James Simpson-Daniel, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Luke Narraway (c) 7 Andrew Hazell, 6 Brett Deacon, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Akapusi Qera, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Lesley Vainikolo

Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Billy Twelvetrees, 9 James Grindal, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Craig Newby, 5 George Skivington, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Julian White, 18 Peter Bucknall, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Jordan Crane, 21 Jason Spice, 22 George Ford, 23 Horacio Agulla.

Date: Saturday, October 30
Venue: Kingsholm
Kick-off: 17.30 BST (16.30 GMT)
Referee: Wayne Barnes