Leicester Tigers side to play Northampton Saints

Leicester Tigers have named their team for Saturday’s East Midlands Derby against Northampton Saints at 3:05pm at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs will make history in the round six clash, making his 28th appearance in an East Midlands Derby, the most of any player, for either club.

Centre Guy Porter comes back into Tigers’ team for his 50th Premiership cap, with Ollie Hassell-Collins on the left wing and Freddie Steward at fullback.

Joe Heyes and James Cronin rotate into the starting prop roles, and Jamie Shillcock comes onto the bench.

Leicester Tigers head coach, Dan McKellar said: “We’ve built well into what is obviously a special week for our club and I’m certainly excited to experience my first East Midlands derby in front of 24,000 of our people on Saturday.”

“For Ben to make a bit of history this weekend, it’s a testament to him and his commitment to the club and his leadership this week has been outstanding, with guys like Brett Deacon and Matt Smith, making sure we’re all aware of what this game means to our community but also how to prepare for it in the right way as well.

“Results so far have not been where they need to be, but our players and staff trust we’re on the right path and our job as a collective is to perform on Saturday to the level, we know we can.”

STARTING XV

15 Freddie Steward [73]

14 Josh Bassett [7]

13 Guy Porter [67]

12 Solomone Kata [2]

11 Ollie Hassell-Collins [7]

10 Handré Pollard [16]

9 Ben Youngs [303]

1 James Cronin [19]

2 Charlie Clare [85]

3 Joe Heyes [128]

4 Cameron Henderson [44]

5 Ollie Chessum [44]

6 Hanro Liebenberg (c) [92]

7 Tommy Reffell [102]

8 Jasper Wiese [62]

REPLACEMENTS

16 Archie Vanes [9]

17 Francois van Wyk [38]

18 Dan Cole [311]

19 Sam Carter [7]

20 Matt Rogerson [7]

21 Tom Whiteley [12]

22 Jamie Shillcock [8]

23 Matt Scott [67]