Leicester Tigers have made a change to the starting XV for the opening game of the Aviva Premiership season against Newcastle Falcons at Welford Road.

Jamie Gibson comes in for Tom Croft in the back row and will wear No6
 
Gibson’s place on the bench is taken by Christian Loamanu, who wears the No20 shirt with Robert Barbieri now wearing the No 19 shirt.
 
Leicester Tigers (v Newcastle Falcons, Aviva Premiership Round 1, Welford Road, Saturday 3pm)
15 Niall Morris
14 Blaine Scully
13 Manusamoa Tuilagi
12 Seremaia Bai
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Freddie Burns
9 Ben Youngs (c)
1 Logovi'i Mulipola
2 Leonardo Ghiraldini
3 Fraser Balmain
4 Sebastian De Chaves
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Tom Youngs
17 Tom Bristow
18 Tiziano Pasquali
19 Robert Barbieri
20 Christian Loamanu
21 David Mele
22 Owen Williams
23 Matt Smith