Preview: Leicester v Gloucester

Leicester welcome back captain Geordan Murphy, Toby Flood, Louis Deacon and Martin Castrogiovanni for their game with Gloucester.

Leicester welcome back club captain Geordan Murphy, Toby Flood, Louis Deacon and Martin Castrogiovanni for their meeting with Gloucester.

Murphy lines up at full-back for the Guinness Premiership leaders after appearances from the bench in the last two games on his return from injury, while Flood and Deacon have been released by England in time to run out on home soil.

Castrogiovanni returns to the Tigers front-row after starting roles with Italy in the opening rounds of the Six Nations, and Anthony Allen is included at centre for the visit of his former club.

“It's great to have Geordan back fit again, and to have Toby Flood and Louis Deacon available for us this weekend,” said Tigers Head Coach Richard Cockerill.

“We got Dan Hipkiss, Jordan Crane and Ben Youngs back from the England camp too and that's all good news for us.

“There are only eight league games left for us and every point is going to be important.”

England internationals Dan Cole and Lewis Moody are unavailable, and Tigers are without the injured Lucas Amorosino, Richard Blaze, Tom Croft, Ben Kay, Aaron Mauger and Julian White.

Meanwhile, an injury to James Simpson-Daniel has forced Bryan Redpath to make changes to his backline for the big Guinness Premiership clash.

Simpson-Daniel picked up a knock during last week's win over Harlequins and is replaced by Tom Voyce.

The only other change to the starting line-up from last weekend's 46-6 victory over Quins sees Scotland international scrum-half Rory Lawson return to partner Nicky Robinson at half-back.

Whilst acknowledging that the game is a big one, Head Coach Redpath is not placing too much emphasis on this one fixture with Gloucester having some big games still to come this season.

“We have to be careful not to get too carried away because Leicester have beaten us in the past and then, after these defeats, we've been criticised,” he said.

“I don't want to look back at those games. We lost them because of reasons then. We've got to think about what we do now and get that right.

“We need to measure ourselves to see where we're really at. It will be interesting to see how far we've come along but not be derailed if things don't work out.

“We have to be careful not to place too much emphasis on just this one game because Leicester are a good side and their consistency has been excellent for the past 10 years.”

Form: Gloucester won 12-9 when the two teams met in the Guinness Premiership in round 8, and are going for a first Premiership double over the Tigers since 2003/04. Leicester Tigers have won their last four games in the Guinness Premiership since the 22-24 reversal at London Wasps on 6 December. Tigers have picked up at least one league point from their last 28 Premiership encounters. Leicester are unbeaten in their last 27 home games since Wasps won at Welford Road in the Premiership on 26 September 2008. Gloucester Rugby have won their last five matches in all competitions, whilst their 46-6 demolition of Harlequins on Saturday was their biggest Premiership win in the league phase since May 2002.

The teams:

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

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 Tom Voyce, 13 Tim Molenaar, 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Gareth Delve (capt), 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Luke Narraway, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Olivier Azam, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Adam Eustace, 20 Andrew Hazell, 21 Andy Williams, 22 Tim Taylor, 23 Charlie Sharples.

Date: Saturday, February 20
Kick-off: 15:00
Venue: Welford Road
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Assistant referees: Paul Dix, Peter Huckle
Television match official: Brian Abrahams