England quartet Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Manu Tuilagi and Ben Youngs are named in Leicester’s starting line-up, with Tom Croft and Martin Castrogiovanni among the replacements on their return from Six Nations duty.
Toby Flood, used as a replacement in the LV= Cup Final win over Northampton Saints last Sunday, takes over at fly-half, and there is a return to the squad for centre Anthony Allen after recovering from a knee injury.
Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “We had a good win in the Cup last weekend but now our focus is purely on the Aviva Premiership and the push for a place in the top four.
“The whole squad has been boosted by the run in the Cup and we have been in decent form, but the Premiership table is so tight that we cannot afford to lose any of that momentum.”
Tigers return to home ground for the Round 19 fixture against Worcester Warriors on Friday, March 30 (7.45pm). Tickets are available now.
Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, Madejski Stadium, Sunday 3pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Horacio Agulla
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Billy Twelvetrees
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 George Skivington
5 Geoff Parling
6 Steve Mafi
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Martin Castrogiovanni
18 Logovi’i Mulipola
19 Tom Croft
20 Craig Newby
21 James Grindal
22 Anthony Allen
23 Scott Hamilton
London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Steven Shingler; 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Dan Bowden, 9 Darren Allinson; 1 Alex Corbisiero, 2 David Paice, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 4 Nick Kennedy (); 5 Bryn Evans, 6 Matt Garvey; 7 Declan Danaher; 8 Jamie Gibson. Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Max Lahiff, 18 Paulica Ion, 19 Bob Casey, 20 Alex Gray, 21 Ofisa Treviranus, 22 Delon Armitage, 23 Paul Hodgson
