Leicester v Treviso - Heineken Cup match preview
Leicester will see the return of their England quintet for Sunday's Heineken Cup match against Benetton Treviso.
Last Updated: 09/12/12 5:06pm
The quintet were all on international duty for England's autumn Tests and return to the club for the Pool 2 match against Italian visitors Treviso at Welford Road.
The English side, having last lifted the trophy a decade ago in 2002, need a win to build on their impressive 39-22 victory over Pro12 champions, the Ospreys, in their last outing.
The Tigers have not been beaten at Welford Road in the Heineken Cup since they lost to Munster back in October 2006, so Treviso will be aware that history is against them making any inroads this weekend.
Despite being in the tournament for 15 years, Treviso have never progressed from the Pool stages.
Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill has named the Youngs brothers, Parling and Tuilagi in the starting line-up. Cole features among the replacements with Martin Castrogiovanni starting in the front row.
Following his autumn series with Fiji, Vereniki Goneva is also back for the Tigers.
Anthony Allen is ruled out but Scott Hamilton returns from injury and Dan Bowden is back in the starting line-up. Among the replacements is Logovi'i Mulipola after his recovery from injury.
Meanwhile, Treviso have named Luke McLean at full-back to allow Christian Loamanu a spot on the right wing.
James Ambrosini will start at fly-half and partners Edoardo Gori. Anthony Pavanello will captain the side and is joined in the engine room by Valerio Bernabo rather than veteran Cornelius Van Zyl.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Dan Bowden, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Ed Slater, 5 Geoff Parling (c), 4 Graham Kitchener, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements:16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Logovi'i Mulipola, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Jordan Crane, 20 Richard Thorpe, 21 Micky Young, 22 Geordan Murphy, 23 Matt Smith.
Benetton Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Christian Loamanu, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Andrea Pratichetti, 10 James Ambrosini, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Dean Budd, 6 Simone Favaro, 5 Valerio Bernabò, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 2 Franco Sbaraglini, 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Michele Rizzo, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Cornelius Van Zyl, 20 Francesco Minto, 21 Paul Derbyshire, 22 Fabio Semenzato, 23 Alberto Di Bernardo.
What they said...
Leicester's Ben Youngs:
"We are straight back into the Heineken Cup and we know every point matters. We want to get out of our pool.
"You are straight back into training, you are straight back into Cockers making sure you're training hard, which is great and we wouldn't have it any other way.
"For all of us we are back in the club environment now and all eyes are on this weekend against Treviso.
"It's a great challenge. This weekend we are playing in front of the Tigers faithful. It's always nice coming back to Leicester. We love playing here."