Meyer v Mitchell at Welford Road
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:41
New Leicester Tigers head coach Heyneke Meyer will come face-to-face with an old adversary when his team play in their first home game of the season - a pre-season friendly against the John Mitchell-coached Super 14 franchise the Western Force.
Meyer, who coached the Pretoria-based Bulls to Super 14 glory in 2007, met Mitchell on a couple of occasions on the Southern Hemisphere stage.
And at Welford Road on Saturday Meyer can expect the same fanatical backing that he got used to in Pretoria when Leicester supporters have the opportunity to see the team in action
It is the Tigers' final pre-season fixture ahead of the opening match of the Guinness Premiership season, at Gloucester on September 7.
Meyer said he is looking for the squad to build on the work done in training and in the pre-season fixtures against Biarritz and the Ospreys.
"We have learned a lot from the two games so far," Meyer said, adding: "They have been tough games against quality opposition and, although I have been impressed by aspects of each performance, we are still looking to improve.
"Now we're looking forward to the game against Western Force and to playing a home fixture before the start of the Guinness Premiership season."
The former All Blacks head coach, Mitchell, have chosen Tigers as the venue for the final leg of the Force's English tour - which has included encounters with Newcastle Falcons, Saracens and Northampton Saints.
They come up against a Leicester Tigers side that will include 12 senior internationals in the starting XV.
An all-international backline includes a first appearance at Welford Road in a Tigers shirt for flyhalf Toby Flood, while Geordan Murphy is at fullback, Alesana Tuilagi and Tom Varndell on the wings, Aaron Mauger is joined at centre by Dan Hipkiss, and Harry Ellis is at scrumhalf.
In the forwards George Chuter makes his first start of the pre-season
programme, with Marco Wentzel joining Richard Blaze in the second row.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Alesana Tuilagi, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Herring, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Marco Wentzel, 4 Richard Blaze, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements - from: Benjamin Kayser, Dan Cole, Boris Stankovich, Martin Corry, Ben Kay, Ben Woods, Julien Dupuy, Sam Vesty, Tom Youngs, Matt Smith, Will Hurrell, Johne Murphy.
Date: Saturday, August 30
Venue: Welford Road, Leicester
Kick-off: 15.00 (14.00 GMT)
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland)
Touch judges: R Campbell/ S Makinson
