Leicester Tigers return to Gallagher Premiership Rugby after a month’s absence on Friday with a Round 10 encounter at Bath Rugby.
Following the cancellation of home games against Worcester Warriors and Wasps either side of the scheduled fallow week, Tigers are in league action for the first time since a 27-19 victory at Harlequins on October 16.
The Rec has hosted 105 previous meetings of the teams, with 41 wins for Tigers, including the 2021/22 trip last February. Overall the two clubs have met on 204 occasions with Leicester winning 118 to 73 by Bath and 13 games drawn.
Steve Borthwick includes Olly Cracknell in the Tigers back row alongside captain Hanro Liebenberg and George Martin, while Chris Ashton returns to the backline.
Tom Cowan-Dickie, Sean Jansen and Sam Edwards are in line for their first league appearances of the season after being included among the replacements with scrum-half Edwards set for his first appearance in Premiership rugby. Charlie Atkinson could make his Tigers senior debut.
Bath give a debut to former Worcester Warriors full-back Jamie Shillcock and also include Ollie Lawrence, Valeriy Morozov and Ted Hill who have also arrived since the start of the season. Ben Spencer returns to play at scrum-half for the first time since suffering an injury in September and Orlando Bailey is back at fly-half. Former Tigers back-rower Richard de Carpentier starts at No8.
Charlie Clare, who starts at hooker for Tigers, said: “Bath have been on the wrong end of a couple of close games and I don’t think their league position really shows where they are. They pushed Saracens really hard, they had a really good win against Northampton and lost by two points against a good Bristol side at the start of the season.
“They’re a tough team with threats all over the park. Ollie Lawrence in the centres has been a good addition and they’re not a team to be taken lightly.”
Tigers have 10 players away on international duty, including Argentina captain Julián Montoya and England starters Jack van Poortvliet, Guy Porter and Freddie Steward.
Josh Bayliss and Cameron Redpath return from Scotland duty to take their places on the Bath bench.
Kick-off on Friday will follow The Rec’s annual Remembrance service on the pitch and Tigers will wear the poppy emblem on the club’s red and white change kit.
There is live coverage on BT Sport 1, or follow text updates with the club’s Matchday Live service and social media channels, with full post-match reaction from The Rec to follow.
