Preview: Leicester v Scarlets

International trio Toby Flood, Anthony Allen and Marcos Ayerza return to the Tigers' line-up for Sunday's home game against the Scarlets.

International trio Toby Flood, Anthony Allen and Marcos Ayerza return to the Leicester Tigers line-up for Sunday's home game against the Scarlets in the Heineken Cup.

Flood and Allen return to a backline which also includes captain Geordan Murphy and top try-scorers Scott Hamilton and Alesana Tuilagi for the club's 99th game in Europe's elite club competition.

Flood partners England international colleague Ben Youngs at half-back, with Allen joining Matt Smith at centre in the absence of the injured Dan Hipkiss.

Prop Ayerza returns after missing the last three games due to injury and joins George Chuter and Martin Castrogiovanni in the front row.

Ben Woods and Manu Tuilagi claim a place among the replacements after recovering from injury.

Tigers and Scarlets both won their opening fixtures in Pool 5, setting up an intriguing encounter at Welford Road on Sunday.

“Scarlets scored four good tries against Perpignan, which shows their form, and we scored five tries in Treviso, so it should make for a good game on Sunday,” said Tigers Director of Rugby Richard Cockerill.

“We've had a bit of trouble with injuries already this season but it's a massive boost to get some of those guys back into the squad.”

Meanwhile, it is a case of as you were for the Scarlets – with coach Nigel Davies keeping faith in the starting XV the saw off Perpignan 43-34 after a thrilling contest.

There are a couple of changes on the bench, though, with Rhodri Jones and Damian Welch replacing Phil John and Jonny Fa'amatuainu.

The teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Craig Newby, 6 Tom Croft, 5 George Skivington, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Ben Woods, 21 James Grindal, 22 Billy Twelvetrees, 23 Manu Tuilagi.

Scarlets: 15 Rhys Priestland, 14 Morgan Stoddart, 13 Regan King, 12 Gareth Maule, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Martin Roberts, 8 David Lyons7 Rob McCusker, 6 Josh Turnbull, 5 Vernon Cooper, 4 Lou Reed, 3 Rhys Thomas, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Iestyn Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Rhodri Jones, 18 Deacon Manu, 19 Damian Welch, 20 Jon Edwards, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Scott Williams, 23 Daniel Evans.

Date: Sunday, 17 October
Venue: Welford Road
Kick-off: 15:00
Referee: George Clancy