Van Poortvliet teams up with Pollard for the trip to Falcons
TRIO CHESSUM, MARTIN AND COLE RULED OUT OF CLASH
JACK van Poortvliet makes his first Leicester Tigers start of the season against the Gallagher Premiership’s bottom and winless club Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park tonight (7.45pm).
Scrum-half van Poortvliet, who was out for eight months with an ankle injury, partners World Cupwinner fly-half Handre Pollard.
Will Hurd also starts in front row in place of the injured Joe Heyes, while England international locks Ollie Chessum and George Martin also miss out through injury.
Veteran prop Dan Cole is also unavailable because he is on mandatory leave after his Guinness Six Nations campaign.
Tigers are also without Welsh international flanker Tommy Reffell.
But Leicester academy graduate James Whitcombe will make his 50th appearance for the club if required off the bench.
There’s also a place for England U20 captain Finn Carnduff among the replacements after he led them to the Six Nations title this month.
Tigers will be looking to bounce back and keep their play-off hopes alive after losing 27-25 to Gloucester at Mattioli Woods Welford Road last Friday night.
Head coach Dan McKellar said: “Off the back of any disappointing loss the only option you have is to fly into the next challenge with energy and enthusiasm and the boys have done that.
“While it’s disappointing to lose Heyesy to injury, it’s great to see Will Hurd back in the side and Jack (van Poortvliet) starting.
“We’ve trained really well with the right intent and we’re going up to Newcastle to put in a performance that the group and our supporters can be proud of.”
Tom Penny plays his 100th game for Newcastle Falcons against Tigers.
The 29-year-old Northumbrian starts at outside centre in Steve Diamond’s first home game in charge, with the consultant director of rugby making six changes to the side which lost to Exeter Chiefs last weekend.
Guy Pepper and Freddie Lockwood are both ruled out with head knocks picked up during the Devon clash, with Ben Stevenson sidelined after injuring his knee.
Phil Brantingham and Richard Palframan slot in at props with Philip van der Walt going back to the blind-side flank in a move which sees Tim Cardall come in at lock.
Ben Redshaw starts on the left wing after scoring a length-of-thefield try for England Under-20s a fortnight ago in the Six Nations titlewinning victory over France.
Cameron Hutchison starts at inside centre following an impressive cameo from the bench at Exeter last weekend, while Sam Cross starts on the open-side flank. England Under-20s backs Oliver Spencer and Ben Douglas are both included on the bench, with Newcastle looking for a repeat of the 45-26 victory they enjoyed the last time Leicester Tigers visited Kingston Park.
Ahead of his first home game at the helm, Diamond said: “Leicester are one of the super clubs, and losing at home like they did last weekend is hard for them to take.
“You’d expect a reaction coming up to little old Newcastle, and we’ll have to be at our best to stay close to them.
“They’ll turn to their mauling game, and it must be a new Australian
technique or something with their head coach Dan McKellar because they’ve got blockers in all over those driving mauls, so they’re quite illegal.
“I’m hoping the refereeing department are having a look at them this week.
“But we’ve got to learn to defend it because they scored three against Gloucester last Friday.
“They’ll also kick the leather off the ball through Handre Pollard, they’ll have a massive back row chasing it and we know we’ve got a really tough game on our hands.”
Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Tom Penny, 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Ben Redshaw, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Phil Brantingham, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Richard Palframan, 4 Tim Cardall, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Sam Cross, 8 Callum Chick (c).
Replacements: 16 Bryan Byrne, 17 Murray McCallum, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 John Hawkins, 20 John Kelly, 21 Ben Douglas, 22 Rory Jennings, 23 Oliver Spencer.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Josh Bassett, 13 Matt Scott, 12 Solomone Kata, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 1 James Cronin, 2 Julián Montoya, 3 Will Hurd, 4 Harry Wells, 5 Kyle Hatherell, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Olly Cracknell, 8 Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 James Whitcombe, 18 Dan Richardson, 19 Finn Carnduff, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Tom Whiteley, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Phil Cokanasiga.