Team News: England international makes his return to action - Ruck

Team News: England international makes his return to action

Manu Tuilagi will make his first appearance since the opening day of the 2017-18 season when Leicester face Munster in the European Champions Cup on Sunday.

The England centre suffered a serious knee injury against Bath back in September, having previously been plagued by groin, hamstring and further knee issues.


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He goes straight into the starting line-up at outside centre and joins another player returning from injury – Matt Toomua – in the Tigers midfield.

“Matt and Manu have been training hard, they’re world-class operators and it’s great to have them back,” head coach Matt O’Connor said.


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“We prepared well for last weekend but we didn’t deliver on the day and were beaten by a very committed Munster side.

“Now we are looking at a big reaction at home this week. Pool 4 is the tightest of all the groups in the competition and all four teams still have everything to play for.”


Leicester Tigers (v Munster Rugby, Welford Road, Sunday 5.30pm)
15 Mathew Tait
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Manu Tuilagi
12 Matt Toomua
11 Jonny May
10 George Ford
9 Ben Youngs
1 Kyle Traynor
2 Tom Youngs (c)
3 Dan Cole
4 Mike Fitzgerald
5 Graham Kitchener
6 Valentino Mapapalangi
7 Mike Williams
8 Sione Kalamafoni
Replacements
16 Tatafu Polota-Nau
17 Logovi’i Mulipola
18 Chris Baumann
19 Dom Barrow
20 Luke Hamilton
21 Sam Harrison
22 Joe Ford
23 Nick Malouf
Munster: 15 Simon Zebo; 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Sammy Arnold, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Alex Wootton; 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Conor Murray; 1 Dave Kilcoyne, 2 Kevin O’Byrne, 3 Stephen Archer; 4 Jean Kleyn, 5 Billy Holland; 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 7 Chris Cloete, 8 CJ Stander.
Replacements: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Brian Scott, 18 John Ryan, 19 Darren O’Shea, 20 Jack O’Donoghue, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Keith Earls.

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