Leicester have recalled Telusa Veainu and Tommy Bell to their backline for Saturday's European Rugby Champions Cup trip to Treviso, live on Sky Sports 2 HD from 12.30pm.
Tonga international Veainu is named at full-back with Bell returning at fly-half in the absence of Owen Williams.
Their return allows a reshuffle in the backline with Peter Betham restored to the wing and captain Mathew Tait at centre alongside Matt Smith.
Tom Croft returns to the forward pack after missing the win over Stade Francais last weekend with a back injury.
Having picked up maximum points against the French champions in the opening round, Leicester will be looking for another bonus-point win on the road.
"We made a really good start to the tournament with five points against Stade Francais last weekend but that will not count for much if we cannot follow up with another strong performance in Italy this weekend," said Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
"We've got competition for places in the squad which means we can pick the freshest team available for this week and have a potential threat throughout the 23-man squad.
"Treviso are always a tough side to play against and on our last couple of visits we've needed late scores to get a win there, so we know we have to play well, we will have to be physical and we will have to be accurate."
Treviso are still looking for their first win of the season after falling to a 32-7 opening round defeat against Munster at Thomond Park.
Treviso
15 Luke McLean, 14 Ludovico Nitoglia, 13 Enrico Bacchin, 12 Samuel Christie, 11 Tommaso Iannone, 10 James Ambrosini, 9 Edoardo Gori (c); 1 Matteo Zanusso, 2 Ornel Gega, 3 Rupert Harden, 4 Filo Paulo, 5 Jean-François Montauriol, 6 Marco Barbini, 7 Francesco Minto, 8 Abraham Jurgens Steyn.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Filippo Filippetto, 19 Dean Budd, 20 Marco Lazzaroni, 21 Alberto de Marchi, 22 Christopher Smylie, 23 Andrea Pratichetti.
Leicester Tigers
15 Telusa Veainu; 14 Peter Betham, 13 Matthew Tait (c), 12 Matt Smith, 11 Vereniki Goneva; 10 Thomas Bell, 9 Sam Harrison; 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 Tom Youngs, 3 Fraser Balmain, 4 Dom Barrow, 5 Michael Fitzgerald, 6 Tom Croft, 7 Brendon O'Connor, 8 Jordan Crane
Replacements: 16 Greg Bateman, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Lachlan McCaffrey, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Seremaia Bai, 23 George Catchpole.
No comments:
Post a Comment