Leicester & Gloucester gear up to honour the Slater Cup

There will be a buzz around Welford Road with weekend as the first instalment of the Slater Cup is set to play out.

Leicester will be coming off a loss against Clermont in the Champions Cup (23-16) last weekend. In the Premiership, however, the Tigers were last in action against Bristol who held them to a score of 26-all:

The Cherry & Whites will take the field with a point to prove after they were decimated by Leinster in Dublin last week, 57-0. With regard to the present comp, the situation is somewhat brighter, as Skivington’s men managed a convincing victory over Northampton Saints:

Leicester’s team news:

Richard Wigglesworth will take charge of his first game on Saturday afternoon after being appointed to the role on Monday.

Saturday’s return to league action will double as the inaugural Slater Cup - a trophy to be contested by Leicester and Gloucester in all Premiership meetings, named after former player Ed Slater and to help raise awareness for Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

Hanro Liebenberg will lead out Leicester on Christmas Eve with Dan Cole and Jack van Poortvliet named vice-captains.

There are six changes to the starting side who defeated Clermont at Welford Road last weekend, including James Whitcombe and Charlie Clare joining Cole in the front-row.

Harry Wells partners Ollie Chessum in the second-row, while Olly Cracknell replaces Jasper Wiese at No8.

In the only changes to the starting backline, vice-captain van Poortvliet and Freddie Burns are the starting half-backs.

Gabriel Oghre is named on the Leicester bench ahead of what will be the front-rower’s first appearance for Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Gloucester’s team news:

After resting a number of players for last weekend's trip to Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup, players such as Val Rapava-Ruskin, Louis Rees-Zammit and captain Lewis Ludlow all return.

In the front row, Val Rapava-Ruskin and Santi Socino are joined by Kirill Gotovtsev, after Fraser Balmain left the field injured in his last outing against Bordeaux.

Freddie Clarke and Matias Alemanno start in the second-row, with Ruan Ackermann, Lewis Ludlow and Albert Tuisue completing the pack. Tuisue is the only player to retain his place place in the starting XV from Leinster.

In the halfbacks, Stephen Varney is joined by Scotland international Adam Hastings, who makes his first appearance back since picking up an injury during the Autumn internationals.

Seb Atkinson and Chris Harris are partnered again in midfield with an exciting back three of Jonny May, Louis Rees-Zammit and Santi Carreras, who had been deployed at fly-half in Hastings' absence.

On the bench there is a potential Cherry & Whites debut for hooker, George McGuigan, after he signed from Newcastle Falcons last week.

He is joined by Alex Seville, Ciaran Knight, Alex Craig, Ben Morgan, Charlie Chapman, Giorgi Kveseladze and Lloyd Evans.