Italy international Castrogiovanni, the Guinness Premiership Player of the Year in 2006/07, has made four appearances as a replacement since returning from injury and has been handed the No.1 shirt for Saturday’s game.
Flanker Ben Woods makes his first Tigers start since the Heineken Cup win over the Ospreys in October after proving his recovery from a knee injury with four tries in two appearances in the Development XV during the last fortnight.
Ben Youngs takes over at scrum-half and Jordan Crane returns to the back row in a team captained by Aaron Mauger.
“The players were disappointed with the team’s performance at Northampton last weekend but we have been working hard in training, we have dealt with the disappointment and we have to look forward in a positive frame of mind,” said Richard Cockerill who is leading the coaching team in the absence of head coach Heyneke Meyer.
“Now we are back into the Heineken Cup programme and we have two massive games with Treviso at home and then the Ospreys away.”
Tickets for Saturday’s game are still available, including a Kids for a Quid offer for supporters aged under 16 accompanied by a full paying adult. Contact the Tigers ticket office now on 08701 28 34 30.
Leicester Tigers (v Benetton Treviso, Welford Road, Saturday 3pm)
15 Geordan Murphy
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Seru Rabeni
12 Aaron Mauger (captain)
11 Matt Smith
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Martin Castrogiovanni
2 George Chuter
3 Julian White
4 Marco Wentzel
5 Ben Kay
6 Tom Croft
7 Ben Woods
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 Benjamin Kayser
17 Boris Stankovich
18 Martin Corry
19 Brett Deacon
20 Julien Dupuy
21 Derick Hougaard
22 Johne Murphy
