Leicester v Bath: Teams

Senior internationals Geordan Murphy, Ben Kay and Derick Hougaard return from injury to take their place in the Leicester Tigers starting XV for Sunday's Guinness Premiership match against Bath at Welford Road.

Murphy missed the dramatic draw against Harlequins at Twickenham last weekend but returns to claim the No.15 shirt against the league leaders.

Johne Murphy is a late replacement on the wing with Scott Hamilton pulling out at the 11th hour, while Kay partners captain Martin Corry in the second row.

South Africa international Hougaard is named at fly-half in place of Toby Flood who is rested as part of the England Elite Squad agreement.

Another late change sees number eight Craig Newby promoted to the starting line-up in place of Jordan Crane - Brett Deacon and Tom Varndell start from the bench.

"Bath have been playing well and the two clubs have had a great rivalry over the years so we expect another tough contest in front of another big Welford Road crowd, " said forwards coach Richard Cockerill.

Improvement

Meanwhile, Guinness Premiership leaders Bath are brimming with confidence as they head to the East Midlands.

With two of their England players rested, Bath will once again be aiming to keep focus and players will need to concentrate all of their energies for this difficult away match.

Speaking earlier this week, head coach Steve Meehan believes that whilst the team has been progressing, there will be further improvement over the coming months.

"We are not playing as well as we can," admitted Meehan. "But having said that, I think that we are getting better and there is time to keep on improving.

"Going up to Welford Road will indeed focus the mind even greater than on any other away trip and hopefully we can continue with that rate of improvement.

"Welford Road is one of those places that you really look forward to as an away trip, because their supporters are so passionate about their team and when you put Bath Rugby supporters there too, it creates quite an atmosphere."

Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Danny Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Matt Smith, 10 Derick Hougaard, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Craig Newby, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Martin Corry (c), 3 Julian White, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Marco Wentzel, 19 Brett Deacon, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Seru Rabeni, 22 Tom Varndell.

Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Joe Maddock, 13 Alex Crockett, 12 Shontayne Hape, 11 Andrew Higgins, 10 Butch James, 9 Scott Bemand, 8 Daniel Browne, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Andy Beattie, 5 Peter Short, 4 , 3 Duncan Bell, 2 Pieter Dixon, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Aaron Jarvis, 18 Justin Harrison, 19 Michael Lipman, 20 Michael Claassens, 21 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 22 Jack Cuthbert.