Tom Croft

Leicester Tigers return to home ground on Saturday after a six-week absence as they host Gloucester Rugby in Round 20 of the Aviva Premiership season. Martin Castrogiovanni, George Skivington and Thomas Waldrom return to the Tigers starting XV and Rob Hawkins, Ben Woods and Billy Twelvetrees also come into the line-up.

Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “It’s great to be back at Welford Road after a run of away games and we have two of our last three league games here. We have to get over the defeat in the Heineken Cup – there is nothing we can do about that now. You just have to pick yourself up and go again. There is still a lot to play for this season.”

“We’ve made a few changes this week because guys like Craig Newby and Anthony Allen have played a lot of rugby and we need to have everyone fit and fresh for the run-in. “Gloucester have been going well in the second half of the season and Bryan Redpath is doing a good job there. They’re in a good place for a semi-final place themselves and it’ll be a good contest.”

Tom Croft will lead out the team in Newby’s absence. Louis Deacon is ruled out this week with an Achilles injury, joining Geordan Murphy, Geoff Parling and Ben Pienaar on the sidelines. Marcos Ayerza misses out due to suspension.

The Tigers ticket office is open until 5pm Friday and from 9am Saturday. Phone the hotline on 0844 856 1880, call in at Welford Road or book online.

Leicester Tigers
Welford Road, Saturday 3pm

15 Scott Hamilton
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Billy Twelvetrees
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Boris Stankovich
2 Rob Hawkins
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Steve Mafi
5 George Skivington
6 Tom Croft (C)
7 Ben Woods
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Julian White
18 Dan Cole
19 Jordan Crane
20 Craig Newby
21 James Grindal
22 Jeremy Staunton
23 Matt Smith