Preview: Viadana v Leicester
October 16 2009
Leicester have handed Geoff Parling his first start of his Tigers tenure for Saturday's match against Viadana.
The former Newcastle lock has made four appearances from the replacements bench since his move this summer, but he wears the number five shirt this weekend, lining up alongside skipper Louis Deacon in the second row.
Richard Cockerill's only other changes from the line-up that started last weekend's draw with the Ospreys is in the front row where Boris Stankovich and Martin Castrogiovanni come in to start at prop, with Marcos Ayerza and Julian White reverting to the replacements' bench.
Head Coach Cockerill has retained the same backline that started the 32-32 draw in Round One, with Billy Twelvetrees alongside Anthony Allen in midfield after his late call-up last week.
Young back Matt Smith, who sat out the Ospreys game with injury, returns to take his place among the replacements. Richard Blaze also returns to the 23-man squad.
Toby Flood, Sam Vesty, Dan Cole and Alesana Tuilagi are making progress on their way back from long-term injury. Tigers are also without Mefin Davies, Harry Ellis, Aaron Mauger, Geordan Murphy, Craig Newby and Ben Woods due to injury, and Dan Hipkiss through illness.
Meanwhile, the Italians will be hoping for a better performance than Round One's 36-18 defeat away to Clermont as they step out onto home soil on Saturday.
Once again they are able to call upon Azzurri wingers Kaine Robertson and Matteo Pratichetti while the bulk of Gavin Quinnell at number eight adds muscle.
The teams:
Viadana: 15 Garry Law, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Matthew Harvey, 12 Sam Cox, 11 Matteo Pratichetti, 10 Pierre Hola, 9 Pablo Canavosio, 8 Gavin Quinnell,7 Aaron Persico, 6 Andrea Benatti, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Sean Hohneck, 3 Ignacio Elosu, 2 Roberto Santamaria, 1 Miguel Alonso,
Replacements: 16 Luigi Milani, 17 Luigi Ferraro, 18 Julio Garcia, 19 Carlo del Fava, 20 Aldo Birchall, 21 Josh Sole, 22 Andrea Brancoli, 23 Mark Woodrow.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Scott Hamilton, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Anthony Allen, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Lucas Amorosino, 10 Jeremy Staunton, 9 James Grindal, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Louis Deacon (c), 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 Joe Duffey, 17 Julian White, 18 Marcos Ayerza, 19 Richard Blaze, 20 Brett Deacon, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Matt Smith, 23 Tom Youngs.
Date: Saturday, October 17
Venue: Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, Viadana
Kick-off: 14.30 (13.30 BST)
Referee: Pascal Gauzere
