Preview: Leicester v Bath

With seven consecutive Guinness Premiership wins firmly under the belt, Bath head to Leicester determined to continue the climb up the table.

With seven consecutive Guinness Premiership wins firmly under the belt, Bath head to Welford Road determined to continue the climb up the table when they tackle Leicester on Saturday.

Prop David Flatman will not feature having sustained a partial tear to his bicep and fellow front-rower David Wilson also remains injured.

Ryan Davis's fractured thumb keeps him out of contention and Luke Watson sits out the match having sustained mild concussion.

“When we get the formula right we are a pretty tough team to stop,” said Bath skills and defence coach Brad Davis.

“We know Leicester are abrasive, but we know our game.

“We approach this match in good form and with a real excitement that we are building towards something special. We will play the game to the best of our ability.

“We need to make sure we are ticking all of the boxes and continue to pick up points. We need to focus on ourselves – we are more than capable of achieving a win and at this stage of the season we will just keep looking forward.”

Meanwhile, Geordan Murphy and Martin Castrogiovanni return to the Leicester Tigers line-up for the Easter Weekend clash.

England lock Louis Deacon also returns in the second row alongside Geoff Parling, with Tom Croft, Lewis Moody and Jordan Crane making up an all-England back row.

“We had a good win on the road last week at Worcester, which has traditionally been a tough place to go for us,” said head coach Richard Cockerill.

“Now we have just four rounds of the Guinness Premiership to go and we want to keep our momentum going.

“Bath are in good form, we're in good form, Saturday should be a good game. Both sides want to play, both sides are scoring tries and it is important for both sides to win.”

Form: Leicester are undefeated in their last five encounters with Bath, whilst Bath's only previous Premiership victory at Welford Road was 13-12 on 29 November 2003. Leicester Tigers have lost only one of their last eight games in the Guinness Premiership: 3-19 at Northampton on February 27. The Tigers are unbeaten in their last 29 matches at Welford Road in all competitions since Wasps won there 28-19 on 26 September 2008. Bath are the best team in the Guinness Premiership on current form having secured 30 from their last 35 possible points. Bath are also the best away side in the competition with 25 league points gained on their travels this campaign.

The teams:

Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Mefin Davies, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Dan Cole, 18 Boris Stankovich, 19 Ben Kay, 20 Craig Newby, 21 James Grindal, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Johne Murphy.

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Shontayne Hape, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 Butch James, 9 Michael Claassens (capt), 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Stuart Hooper, 4 Peter Short, 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Lee Mears, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 Nathan Catt, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 Danny Grewcock, 20 Jonny Faamatuainu, 21 Scott Bemand, 22 Nicky Little, 23 Matt Carraro.

Date: Saturday, April 3
Venue: Welford Road
Kick-off: 15:00 BST
Referee: Sean Davey
Assistant referees: Alan Biggs, Roger Baileff
TMO: Brian Abrahams