Preview: Treviso v Leicester

Toby Flood has recovered from his knee injury and returns to the Leicester line-up for their Heineken Cup opener against Treviso in Italy.

Toby Flood has recovered from his knee injury and returns to the Leicester line-up for their Heineken Cup opener against Treviso in Italy on Saturday.

The England fly-half has been sidelined since suffering a knee injury in the opening fixture of the season at Northampton Saints.

Fellow internationals Geordan Murphy, Alesana Tuilagi, Ben Youngs and George Chuter are recalled after sitting out last weekend's Aviva Premiership Rugby trip to Saracens, and back-rowers Thomas Waldrom and Ben Woods also return to the starting team.

Italy international Martin Castrogiovanni starts in the front-row alongside Chuter and Boris Stankovich.

“We've been playing with some confidence and we've been playing some good rugby,” said Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill told their official website.

“Treviso have made a good start to their season and we know we have to be disciplined on and off the ball. Three sides have already gone over there and lost in the league, so we will treat them with huge respect.”

Meanwhile, the Treviso starting XV will sport several changes from the team that beat Gwent Dragons 20-13 in the Magners League last weekend.

Luke McLean comes in for Tobias Botes at full-back while at centre Tommaso Benvenuti and Alberto Sgarbi replaces Ezio Galon and Andrew Vilk. The latter moves to the wing.

Paul Derbyshire moves from the side of the scrum to number eight with Alessandro Zanni taking over at flank. The tight five remains the same.

The teams:

Benetton Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Ludovico Nitoglia, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Andrew Vilk, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Paul Derbyshire, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Robert Barbieri, 5 Cornelius van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Franco Sbaraglini, 18 Pedro di Santo, 19 Enrico Pavanello, 20 Marco Filippucci, 21 Simon Picone, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 Joe Maddock

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