Leicester v Sale: Teams

Full-back Geordan Murphy takes over the Leicester captaincy with both Martin Corry and Aaron Mauger ruled out through injury.

Dan Hipkiss returns to partner Sam Vesty at centre while Marcos Ayerza and Julian White are named in the front row with Ben Pienaar replacing Corry at the base of the scrum.

Julien Dupuy is named among the replacements after sitting out the match at Newcastle last Friday while Richard Blaze (foot), Jordan Crane (knee), Brett Deacon (foot), Ben Herring (head), Benjamin Kayser (neck), Lewis Moody (ankle), Craig Newby (hamstring), Matt Smith (ankle), Boris Stankovich (head) and Marco Wentzel (knee) are all out due to injury.

"We didn't play the way we would have liked at Newcastle last week and we know we can do a lot better than that," said acting head coach, Richard Cockerill.

"We have three tough fixtures left and we have to get as much as we can out of them to keep the pressure on the teams around us."

McAlister facing test

Sale are able to name their strongest line-up for some time with Dwayne Peel, Dean Schofield and Anitelea Tuilagi all returning from injury.

Peel returns at scrum-half while the other pair start from the bench with Tuilagi making his first outing since injuring a shoulder at Munster in January.

New Zealander Luke McAlister faces a fitness test on a hamstring injury and if he fails to come through it, Mathew Tait will revert to outside centre and Oriol Ripol will come in on the left wing.

Sean Cox and Selorm Kuadey are on standby to take any vacant place on the bench.

"It's a massive challenge, our quarter final," said Sharks director of rugby Kingsley Jones. "What a great place to play rugby - a packed Welford Road, five o'clock kick-off, and live on television," he said.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (capt), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Sam Vesty, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Ben Pienaar, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.

Replacements: 16 Mefin Davies, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Calum Green, 19 Dan Hemingway, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Ayoola Erinle, 22 Johne Murphy.

Sale Sharks: 15 Nick Macleod, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Luke McAlister, 12 Rudi Keil, 11 Mathew Tait, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe (capt), 7 Neil Briggs, 6 Jason White, 5 Brent Cockbain, 4 Chris Jones, 3 Eifion Roberts, 2 Sebastien Bruno, 1 Andrew Sheridan.

Replacements: 16 Stuart Turner, 17 Lionel Faure, 18 Dean Schofield, 19 Carl Fearns, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Anitelea Tuilagi, 21 Oriol Ripol.