Club captain Murphy will make his 200th Premiership appearance as he is included in the starting line-up for the first time since the win over Northampton Saints in early November. He becomes the 19th player to reach that top-flight landmark, with club colleague George Chuter holding the all-time record with 258 appearances.
Fly-half Flood has recovered from a toe injury and makes his first club appearance since the end of October.
Graham Kitchener comes into the second row for Tigers, and Jordan Crane takes the No8 shirt with Thomas Waldrom ruled out by a calf injury picked up in last Saturday’s European win over Benetton Treviso in Italy.
Leicester Tigers (v London Irish, away, Saturday 3pm)
15 Geordan Murphy
14 Niall Morris
13 Manusamoa Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Adam Thompstone
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Dan Cole
4 Louis Deacon (c)
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Brett Deacon
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Logovi’i Mulipola
18 Fraser Balmain
19 Ed Slater
20 Geoff Parling
21 Sam Harrison
22 George Ford
23 Matt Smith
Former Tigers fly-half Ian Humphreys starts in the No10 shirt for London Irish.
London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Darren Allinson; 1 Max Lahiff, 2 David Paice, 3 Halani Aulika, 4 Bryn Evans, 5 Matt Garvey, 6 Declan Danaher (c), 7 Jebb Sinclair, 8 Chris Hala’ufia
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Kieran Low, 20 Jamie Gibson, 21 Guy Armitage, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Jack Moates
