No8 Jordan Crane takes his place after recovering from injury while fellow England internationals George Chuter, Dan Cole, and Ben Youngs return after being rested last week. Matt Smith is named on the wing in the other change to the starting XV.
Fly-half Toby Flood is named among the replacements after recovering from injury.
Richard Cockerill, Tigers director of rugby, said: “We’re in good shape and in pretty good form but we know it will be a tough afternoon there. It is sold out in advance and these are the kind of games and days they wanted to be involved in when they got promoted.
“Exeter kept together the core of their team from last year and Rob Baxter is doing a great job.
“At Welford Road they played really well, they could have won it and were very unlucky to go home with nothing in the end. We have nothing but respect for them.
“Everybody talks about momentum but we just talk about the next game and trying to get points out of it. We have to get something because every point will count.”
Leicester Tigers (vs Exeter Chiefs, Sandy Park, Sunday 4.15pm)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Matt Smith
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Anthony Allen
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Jeremy Staunton
9 Ben Youngs
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Dan Cole
4 Louis Deacon
5 Ed Slater
6 Steve Mafi
7 Craig Newby
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Martin Castrogiovanni
18 Julian White
19 Calum Green
20 Thomas Waldrom
21 James Grindal
22 Toby Flood
23 Horacio Agulla
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Nic Sestaret, 13 Jason Shoemark, 12 Sireli Naqelevuki, 11 Mark Foster, 10 Ryan Davis, 9 Haydn Thomas, 1 Brett Sturgess, 2 Chris Whitehead, 3 Hoani Tui, 4 Tom Hayes (c), 5 James Hanks, 6 Tom Johnson, 7 James Scaysbrook, 8 Richard Baxter Replacements: 16 Simon Alcott, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Chris Budgen, 19 Chad Slade, 20 Dave Ewers, 21 Junior Poluleuligaga, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Phil Dollman
