Leicester Tigers matchday team news for Aviva Premiership Round 5
Summer signing Dan Bowden will make his Leicester Tigers debut in the home game against Exeter Chiefs at Welford Road on Saturday (kick-off 2.15pm).
Former London Irish centre Bowden is named in the Tigers line-up for the Aviva Premiership Round 5 fixture and will run out at Welford Road for the first time.
Front-rowers George Chuter and Logovi’i Mulipola come into the Tigers forward pack and there is a return for Thomas Waldrom at No8 with captain Jordan Crane moving across the back row to blindside flanker.
Ed Slater is included in the matchday squad for the first time this season after recovering from a knee injury.
Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “We’ve all been very honest about the performance against Harlequins last week and the only way we know to correct that is to work hard in training and to front-up again on Saturday.
“Exeter had an excellent win last week and they are a team to be respected. They’re tough opponents and they’ve added to their game again this season.
“We’ve played some decent rugby in the season so far and we’ve been resilient in defence but we need to be more accurate and composed on the ball.”
Anthony Allen and Steve Mafi took knocks in the game against Harlequins last week, while Tigers are also without injured club captain Geordan Murphy, Miles Benjamin, Tom Croft, Louis Deacon, Rob Hawkins, Manu Tuilagi, Micky Young and Ben Youngs.
Tickets for Saturday’s match are available now from the Tigers ticket office (open until 5pm Friday and from 9am Saturday). Call in at Welford Road, phone 0844 856 1880 or book online.
Leicester Tigers (vs Exeter Chiefs, Welford Road, Saturday 2.15pm)
15 Scott Hamilton
14 Niall Morris
13 Matt Smith
12 Dan Bowden
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Toby Flood
9 Sam Harrison
1 Logovi’i Mulipola
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 Graham Kitchener
5 Geoff Parling
6 Jordan Crane (c)
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Martin Castrogiovanni
19 Ed Slater
20 Brett Deacon
21 Patrick Phibbs
22 George Ford
23 Adam Thompstone
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