Forward duo George McGuigan and Brendon O’Connor return to the Leicester Tigers squad for Saturday’s home game against Exeter Chiefs in Round 5 of the Aviva Premiership season.
Hooker McGuigan is in line for his first appearance of the season after suffering a hand injury in the August fixture against Treviso. He is named among the replacements after Harry Thacker was withdrawn during the second half of last week’s win at Harlequins.
Back-rower O’Connor has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury but is fit to return this week.
Luke Hamilton returns to the starting line-up in place of Dominic Ryan who took a knock in the match at The Stoop last weekend.
As Tigers welcome the defending league champions to Welford Road, head coach Matt O’Connor said: “We’ve had two good results against Gloucester and Harlequins, we’ve taken a lot of positives from those games, but we all know we have to keep taking steps forward.
“Exeter are a very efficient team, they like to build pressure on you and they make very few mistakes. We will have to be better again this week.”
Tigers anticipate the biggest crowd of the season so far at Welford Road with tickets in big demand. Tickets are available to book in person, by phoning 0116 319 8888 or online at www.leicestertigers.com
Leicester Tigers (v Exeter Chiefs, Welford Road, Saturday 3.00pm)
15 Telusa Veainu
14 Nick Malouf
13 Matt Smith
12 Matt Toomua
11 Jonny May
10 George Ford
1 Ellis Genge
2 Tom Youngs (c)
3 Dan Cole
5 Dom Barrow
6 Mike Williams
7 Luke Hamilton
8 Sione Kalamafoni
Replacements
16 George McGuigan
17 Greg Bateman
18 Logovi’i Mulipola
19 Valentino Mapapalangi
20 Brendon O’Connor
21 Sam Harrison
22 Joe Ford
23 Mathew Tait
