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Tigers name team for Quins

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Young Irishman John Murphy is in line to make his Guinness Premiership debut for Leicester Tigers at Harlequins on Saturday. Murphy, who scored two tries for the development side in the Guinness A League win over Newcastle on Monday evening, is named on the wing for the trip to the Twickenham Stoop.

Head coach Pat Howard is also giving a first start of the season to England international duo Harry Ellis and Lewis Moody, as well as Irish international Paul Burke who takes over from Andy Goode at fly-half against his former club.

Alesana Tuilagi, Ollie Smith and prop Michael Holford are named on the bench for the first time this term.

Howard said: "John Murphy has worked hard to get back after a cruciate ligament injury last season. He has played consistently well for the development team and now he has his opportunity. How it goes after that is down to him.

"The players have been told that if they play well on a consistent basis in the second team then they will get their chance.

"They know it is up to them to take the opportunity when they come up."

Looking at the return of Ellis after a hamstring injury and Moody after playing a part from the bench in the draw with Gloucester last week, Howard said: "It is great to have them back. We have been cautious with Harry because we did not want to make the problem any worse, and Lewis came through last week and I'm happy to give him a start.

"Luke Abraham did okay last Saturday but we have two sevens back from injury, with Lewis and Shane Jennings back in the frame, so he has to miss out this time.

"It might look like there are a lot of changes, but most of them are down to injury - Ben Kay, Louis Deacon, Harry Ellis and Lewis Moody are all back to fitness, but we've lost Matt Cornwell, Daryl Gibson and Seru Rabeni.

"We got the pre-season without any injuries but we've been hit since the first game. We're getting a lot of positional injuries too - we've lost centres this week but we've welcomed back flankers."

After nailing down his position at full-back, Sam Vesty, (Members' Player of the Year last season) moves into the centre after injuries to Cornwell, Gibson and Rabeni.

Cornwell has a shoulder injury, Gibson is the victim of a training ground injury and Rabeni took a knock to his knee against Gloucester, though it is not to the knee that had reconstruction surgery last year and therefore not considered serious.

In the pack, Martin Castrogiovanni takes over from Marcos Ayerza at loosehead, Kay joins Leo Cullen in the second row, while Deacon's return at blindside allows skipper Martin Corry to wear the No.8 shirt after moving to flanker last weekend.

Leicester Tigers (v Harlequins at The Twickenham Stoop, Saturday, 6.15pm):

15 Geordan Murphy
14 John Murphy
13 Danny Hipkiss
12 Sam Vesty
11 Tom Varndell
10 Paul Burke
9 Harry Ellis

1 Martin Castrogiovanni
2 George Chuter
3 Julian White
4 Leo Cullen
5 Ben Kay
6 Louis Deacon
7 Lewis Moody
8 Martin Corry (captain)

Replacements:

16 James Buckland
17 Michael Holford
18 Jordan Crane
19 Shane Jennings
20 Scott Bemand
21 Ollie Smith
22 Alesana Tuilagi