Andy Forsyth out injured

Billy Twelvetrees, Martin Castrogiovanni, George Skivington and Ben Woods return to the Leicester Tigers team for Saturday’s Aviva Premiership Rugby trip to Gloucester.

Andy Forsyth and Geoff Parling are ruled out after picking up injuries in the European win over Ulster last weekend, meaning a timely return from injury for Twelvetrees and a starting place for Skivington. Woods starts at openside flanker as Julian Salvi is also ruled out, and Castrogiovanni is given a starting role in the front row with Dan Cole among the replacements.

“This is a big month of fixtures with Gloucester and Northampton, and then the European double-header with Clermont Auvergne,” said director of rugby Richard Cockerill.

“Gloucester have a good forward pack and a dangerous set of backs, and Kingsholm is always a tough place to go.

“But we put in a good all-round performance against Ulster last weekend, our defence was good throughout and we got the basics of the game right and came through in the end. Our recent form has been pretty good and we obviously want that to continue.”

Saturday’s match is covered live by ESPN.

Starting XV:
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Matt Smith
12 Billy Twelvetrees
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Sam Harrison
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Louis Deacon
5 George Skivington
6 Tom Croft
7 Ben Woods
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Dan Cole
19 Steve Mafi
20 Ed Slater
21 Ben Youngs
22 Jeremy Staunton
23 Scott Hamilton