England internationals Harry Ellis and Dan Hipkiss return from injury to start for Leicester Tigers in Wednesday’s Guinness Premiership fixture against local rivals Northampton Saints at Welford Road (7.45pm).

The duo missed the trip to Worcester and last Friday’s match against London Wasps, but they have been named in the starting XV by head coach Heyneke Meyer for the first East Midlands derby since the 2006/07 season and Tigers’ second home game in five days.

Matt Smith, who has started every game of the season so far, moves to the wing as Hipkiss comes in at centre, while Ellis takes over from Julien Dupuy in the No9 shirt.

Loosehead prop Boris Stankovich makes his first senior appearance of the season alongside Benjamin Kayser and the recalled Julian White in the front row, while Ben Herring returns at openside flanker after starting among the replacements last Friday.

Tickets are still available from the Tigers ticket office for Wednesday’s fixture. Call 08701 28 34 30, book online at http://www.leicestertigers.com/ or call in at Welford Road.

Leicester Tigers (v Northampton Saints, Welford Road, Wednesday 7.45pm)
15 Geordan Murphy
14 Johne Murphy
13 Dan Hipkiss
12 Aaron Mauger
11 Matt Smith
10 Toby Flood
9 Harry Ellis
1 Boris Stankovich
2 Benjamin Kayser
3 Julian White
4 Martin Corry (c)
5 Marco Wentzel
6 Tom Croft
7 Ben Herring
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Marcos Ayerza
18 Ben Kay
19 Ben Woods
20 Julien Dupuy
21 Tom Youngs
22 Tom Varndell