Leicester Tigers vs Bath

Leicester Tigers (v Bath Rugby, Welford Road, Sunday 2pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Blaine Scully
13 Vereniki Goneva 
12 Anthony Allen
11 Miles Benjamin
10 Owen Williams
9 Ben Youngs (c)
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Tom Youngs
3 Fraser Balmain
4 Graham Kitchener
5 Geoff Parling
6 Jamie Gibson
7 Julian Salvi
8 Jordan Crane

Replacements
16 Leonardo Ghiraldini
17 Michele Rizzo
18 Tiziano Pasquali
19 Sebastian De Chaves
20 Robert Barbieri
21 Sam Harrison
22 Freddie Burns
23 Seremaia Bai

Bath Rugby: 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Sam Burgess, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford, 9 Chris Cook; 1 Paul James, 2 Rob Webber, 3 David Wilson, 4 Stuart Hooper (c), 5 Dave Attwood, 6 Matt Garvey, 7 Francois Louw, 8 Carl Fearns
Replacements: 16 Ross Batty, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 Dominic Day, 20 Leroy Houston, 21 Micky Young, 22 Ollie Devoto, 23 Jonathan Joseph

Big news there is that Dan Cole isn't playing (a big loss given his current form) and that Burgess makes his first AP start at 13. Burgess vs Goneva will be a very interesting match up.

Looking forward to wellys score prediction as always

28 - 9 Bath.

I think a lot will depend on whether the ref allows James to bore in on the tighthead or not. If Tigers can negate the Bath scrum (if we had Cole I'd back us to attack it but Balmain isn't that powerful yet). At the line out we should be able to apply pressure. That will cut down on the front foot ball Bath will be used to.

Use the cross field and box kick to put Scully up in the air against Roko. Get Goneva running at Burgess see if we can start pulling him out of the line early to target Niki and we'll have space to play with. Bath aren't unbeatable. Match the pack up front and don't let Ford control the tempo.

Roko isn't their Sam.

 I feel the Bath Backline isn't as dangerous as it was last time and we have a better backline than before.

 The pack match up is key.

 I prefer Gibson than Croft in terms of breakdown work.

 Hopefully Crane will build on top of last weekend.

 Balmain isn't as strong in the scrum but has been improving, his ball carrying is impressive though.

 Bath bench is worrying though.

I'll be happy with a LBP in this game with some of the strange sellection issues. JJ is carrying a knock, but I'd still start Banahan or Devoto at 13 instead of Burgess in a game of this magnitude. Tigers at home are a really tough side to beat, the intepretation of James a the scrum will indeed be key, but with Auterac on the bench coming on after 50 mins we have a solution if it goes wrong. 

Won't be able to watch as away in Berlin, so best of luck to the Tigers fans. I was behind the try line at the rec earlier this season, so even if we score a penalty I'll have some gloating rights!

Never thought i'd see Burgess start this one at 13, especially with Joseph fit and an A league game semi final the following day where he could get a full 80 mins and continue his development. This will no doubt speed his development but this is a huge risk for us when Eastmond and Joseph have been on fire and this is the bloomin Tigers !!

Still that said, with Burgess drawing defenders, eastmonds passing and the firepower of our inform back 3 this could be very interesting !

Must say that I'm surprised as well. A massive game for Burgess to start at 13. Williams, Allen and Goneva will really test him. 13 is a very difficult position to defend at this level without experience.

Eastmond, Watson, Agulla and Banahan will need to be on their toes in defence and communicate like crazy.