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Leeds Tykes vs Leicester Tigers Team News


	David Rees photo by Getty Images

23 September 2005
Phil Davies has made two changes to the starting line up for the visit of Leicester on Sunday.

David Rees replaces David Doherty on the wing whilst Gordon Bulloch returns to the starting XV after two appearances as a sub in place of Rob Rawlinson, who is amongst the replacements. Also on the bench is South African prop Rayno Gerber who returns to first team action for the first time since last March having played over 50 minutes in the Guinness A League win over Worcester on Monday night. He comes in for Michael Cusack whilst Nathan Thomas replaces Scott Morgan who misses out through injury.

Tykes boss Phil Davies looked ahead to the fixture "The game against Leicester is one that is always eagerly anticipated by the supporters and it is certainly a game that has brought the best out of the Tykes down the years.

The Tigers have a new coaching team in Pat Howard, Richard Cockerill and Neil Back; all three men are vastly experienced and determined characters who will bring all that to bear on the training field with Leicester over the coming months and years.

The Tigers have a strong, well equipped team. They combine great experienced players with the likes of Leo Cullen, who I think is one of the best buys of the summer. I also rate the Deacon brothers, Louis and Brett, very highly as well as the Tigers other set of brothers the Tuilagi’s who add power and pace to the pack division. It all comes together to form an exceptional unit and a big challenge for us but one that we are looking forward to."

"Our start to the season has been extremely frustrating for all of us. As a coaching team we have been really proactive in the build up to this week and despite the result last week there was plenty for us to take heart in.

When we have analysed our performance from last week, we achieved a 90% completion rate on our tackles, normally with that sort of solidity in defence you would hope to have come up with the right result. However, we presented opportunities to Wasps and they were extremely clinical in finishing them off. The very best teams can do that and we know that we will need to be even better against Leicester."

"We are creating opportunities and everyone within the squad has faith in what we are trying to achieve as a group. I have stated that our goal is to establish ourselves as a top six club on a regular basis over the next three years. Whilst the recent results have not been acceptable it is where we finish in the table come May not after the first month that we are working towards and will continue to do so.

The response from the players in training has been terrific over the past two weeks. They are working hard to put things right and build on what we have achieved to date. The first half performance against Wasps showed us what we can achieve and with a bit more confidence and composure I’m sure we could have continued to build on that."

The team in full is:

1. Mike Shelley
2. Gordon Bulloch
3. Gavin Kerr
4. Chris Murphy
5. Tom Palmer
6. Jon Dunbar
7. Richard Parks
8. Jordan Crane
9. Justin Marshall
10. Roland De Marigny
11. David Rees
12. Andre Snyman
13. Chris Jones
14. Tom Biggs
15. Iain Balshaw (c)

16. Rayno Gerber
17. Rob Rawlinson
18. Stuart Hooper
19. Nathan Thomas
20. Danny Care
21. Tim Stimpson
22. Gordon Ross

Louis Deacon to Skipper Tigers Against Leeds
Leicester Tigers second row Louis Deacon will lead his team into battle against Leeds Tykes in Guinness Premiership action at Headingley this Sunday (kick-off 2.30pm), with club captain Martin Corry taking a well-deserved break this weekend, along with a number of other first-team regulars.


Louis Deacon photo by Getty Images

Joining No.8 Corry on the sidelines are fellow Lions and England stars Julian White (tighthead prop) and second row Ben Kay, whilst points-machine Andy Goode also gets a complete break, as does inside centre Daryl Gibson, Tigers' Man of the Match against Bath last Saturday.

"Louis is young in years, but he has a huge amount of first team experience," said Tigers forwards coach Richard Cockerill to www.leicestertigers.com. "He's been in and around the first team for the last seven years; he's a very good leader, he talks a lot of common sense, he's very direct and to the point and we're more than happy to have him as captain.

"Louis is someone we'd like to mould into a leader for the future and the older players in the team will just play their games, which will help the younger leaders through the process. You need several leaders to be successful on the field, we've always had that here and I don't think it's any different this weekend."

In all, the Tigers XV shows a massive 13 changes from the side that beat Bath 40-26, including three positional changes; Will Johnson moves from blindside flank to No.8 (for Corry), former England player Austin Healey moves from right-wing to scrum-half - where he first made a name for himself as a youngster - and Leon Lloyd, who started at outside centre against Bath, shifts to the left-wing.

Explained Cockerill: "You can't play your top players in every single game and we care about our players' welfare, both on and off the field. Some of the Lions boys, like Julian, could've played, but we felt he needed a rest and will be ready for Europe. The guys that have come in are very, very fresh and they want to show the coaching staff that they're competing for a first team spot more often than not. At Tigers we pick a team to win every game; we're not picking a side to fill a fixture, believe me.

"We've got a strong squad and we think everybody in the team is worthy of their place. We've got a few injuries, we want to get everybody as right as we can for our forthcoming cup matches, but having said that some guys are just purely rested and we think the guys in the team for Sunday are more than capable of doing what we want them to. There's no point have a squad of 40-odd players if you're only going to use 15 every week."

England scrum-half Ellis gets a break on the replacements' bench, alongside regular hooker George Chuter, hard-working openside flanker Shane Jennings and winger Tom Varndell, all of whom have started three successive matches in the 2005/06 Guinness Premiership. Lock Leo Cullen and centre Dan Hipkiss, who started in Tigers' development team against Newcastle on Monday night, both return to the matchday 22.

In further changes, hooker Ephraim Taukafa gets his first-ever Tigers start, second row James Hamilton, blindside flanker Brett Deacon and winger Alesana Tuilagi return to the starting XV, whilst fit-again England and Lions loosehead prop Graham Rowntree, openside flanker Will Skinner, fly-half Ross Broadfoot, inside centre Matt Cornwell and England and Lions outside centre Ollie Smith all get their first Guinness Premiership starts of 2005/06.

Cornwell, who captained England's Under-21s at the International Rugby Board U21 World Cup earlier this year, is the vice-captain for Sunday and his partnership with fit-again Lions man Smith should bring out the best in Tigers' outside backs, even without try-scoring machine Varndell, who is likely to see some action from the bench.

"Matt came into the first team last year and did a very good job," said Cockerill. "He led the backline at training this week and he'll be running it at the weekend, even though there's probably more illustrious people around him. We have faith in our young players and Pat wouldn't give him the job if he wasn't up to it."

The only starting survivors from the Bath match are new captain Deacon, back row Johnson, No.9 Healey, winger Lloyd and full back Geordan Murphy, who will make his 100th Premiership appearance for Tigers, having notched up 45 tries thus far in England's top-flight.

Prop Alex Moreno, who played on the loosehead side last week, was set to start at tighthead prop, to accommodate Rowntree's return and the resting of White, but he picked up an ankle injury at training on Thursday, and Michael Holford now gets a start in the No.3 shirt. Youngster Dave Young, who has been playing for Tigers' development team this season, will warm the bench on Sunday, with Moreno facing a possible three-week lay-off.

Said Cockerill: "Alex's done really well for us this season and he's fitted in very well, too. Obviously, losing a guy so close to the weekend is not ideal and we've had to make adjustments, but I've got confidence in Michael Holford. Mike's improved immensely over the last 12 months, he's done well so far this season and Sunday will be a very good experience for him. That's how young guys learn and pick up valuable experience, by playing; so let's get him out there!"

Tigers have never won a league match against Leeds Tykes at Headingley, with the previous nine matches between these two teams going in favour of the home side every time. Tigers beat Leeds 42-20 at Welford Road in September 2004, before going down 22-23 in the return fixture in March 2005.

"We've put a team out we think can win," concluded Cockerill. "I wouldn't say we expect to win; Leeds have obviously struggled in their first three games, but they always seem to turn their season around after they've played against us. Last season we were top of the table and they were at the bottom, we went there and got turned over and their season went from strength to strength. Unfortunately for us, it seems they're in a similar position this season, Phil Davies' been quoted as saying that they need to kick-start their season with a win and who're they're playing? They're playing us!"

Leicester Tigers team to face Leeds Tykes:

15 Geordan Murphy
14 Alesana Tuilagi
13 Ollie Smith
12 Matt Cornwell (vice-captain)
11 Leon Lloyd
10 Ross Broadfoot
9 Austin Healey
1 Graham Rowntree
2 Ephraim Taukafa
3 Michael Holford
4 Louis Deacon (captain)
5 James Hamilton
6 Brett Deacon
7 Will Skinner
8 Will Johnson

Replacements:

George Chuter
Dave Young
Leo Cullen
Shane Jennings
Harry Ellis
Dan Hipkiss
Tom Varndell