Aviva Premiership
Youngs and Croft start for Tigers
ESPN Staff
December 19, 2014
Tom Croft starts for Northampton © Getty Images
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Sam Burgess has been named on Bath's bench for their derby with Gloucester on Saturday.

Burgess started against Montpellier last Friday but he will have to be content with a spot among the replacements with Kyle Eastmond preferred at inside centre. Stuart Hooper returns to captain the side with Dave Attwood missing out through injury. For Gloucester, David Halaifonua features in the squad for the first time while Sione Kalamafoni, Greig Laidlaw and Tom Palmer start. Ben Morgan is out injured.

Ahead of the East Midlands derby, Leicester have been served a boost with Tom Youngs and Tom Croft both returning to the starting line-up while Graham Kitchener takes the place of the injured Brad Thorn. For Northampton, Tom Stephenson shifts to outside centre alongside Luther Burrell with Alex Waller, Christian Day and Samu Manoa all starting.

Harlequins have suffered another injury blow ahead of their match with Newcastle with Luke Wallace ruled out for between six to eight weeks after he broke his hand against Leinster last weekend. Quins are also without Nick Easter and Chris Robshaw for the match against the Falcons with Jack Clifford, Joe Trayfoot and James Chisholm linking up in their back-row.

Saracens have rung the changes for their game against London Welsh with Ernst Joubert skippering the side while Jim Hamilton, Neil de Kock, Brett Sharman, Duncan Taylor and Ben Ransom also start.

Wasps have started Christian Wade on the flank for their first game at the Ricoh Arena and director of rugby Dai Young is relishing the chance to see his side run out at their new home.

"We are all incredibly excited about playing in a world-class arena, in front of a bumper crowd," said Young. "Our marketing and commercial team have done an incredible job to have attracted a crowd of over 28,000 in such a short space of time, and that is testament to the work ethic and ambition of everyone involved at Wasps to make this a successful move for the club.

"They have done their job and now it's up to us as a playing squad to do ours. We need to produce a performance which will excite the crowd and encourage fans to continue supporting Wasps. Come kick off, we can't let the emotion of the occasion get to us. We need to focus for the full 80 minutes if we are to achieve the result we all want, in order to get off to a winning start here at our new home."

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