Premiership: Tigers feel the heat

Leicester Director of rugby Richard Cockerill is not to blame for the injury-hit Tigers early season struggles according to sidelined skipper Ed Slater.

For so long one of the powerhouses of English rugby, Leicester go into Friday's match at home to Harlequins looking to avoid a fourth straight defeat for the first time since 2003.

The Midlands giants have more than 20 players on their injured list but former England hooker Cockerill has reacted angrily to accusations that an old-fashioned training regime is to blame.

"I have had some pretty average accusations pointed at how Leicester train," Cockerill said. "The old days of beating each other…It's a long time ago."

Meanwhile Slater said Thursday: "I think it's easy to find excuses and it's easy for people to look at Cocker and blame Cocker for what's happened.

"But the reality of the situation is that as a playing squad we haven't been playing well enough.

"So it's all our responsibility, and the response to Cocker and the things that are being said, it's almost similar to football in a way – we've lost three games.

"It's below our expectations, we've been in difficult positions before and we've got to trust ourselves to come through it.

"You can't produce knee-jerk reactions after three games. I've said before that the club's got a brilliant framework, it's something that's served them well for a really long time. For questions to be asked of that is wrong.

"First and foremost as players we've got to look at our performance on the pitch, and it hasn't been good enough.

"Looking for problems around the club isn't the solution, and we're confident that we need to pull together and take some responsibility in how we're performing," he added.

All of the weekend's match details:

Friday, October 10

Leicester Tigers v Harlequins

(Welford Road – Kick-off: 19.45; 18.45 GMT)

Teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Blaine Scully, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Owen Williams, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Ben Youngs (captain), 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo.

Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Sebastian de Chaves, 20 Robert Barbieri, 21 David Mélé, 22 Sam Harrison, 23 Miles Benjamin.

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Asaeli Tikoirotuma, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw, 6 Luke Wallace, 5 George Robson, 4 Charlie Matthews, 3 Will Collier, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler (captain).

Replacements: 16 Dave Ward, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Sam Twomey, 20 Joe Trayfoot, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 George Lowe, 23 Ollie Lindsay-Hague.

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth

Assistant referees: Andy Watson, Paul Dix

TMO: Rowan Kitt

Saturday, October 11

London Welsh v Newcastle Falcons

(Kassam Stadium – Kick-off: 14.30; 13.30 GMT)

Teams:

London Welsh: 15 Seb Jewell, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 Nic Reynolds, 12 Tom May (captain), 11 Nick Scott, 10 Olly Barkley, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Chris Hala'ufia, 7 Richard Thorpe, 6 Pete Browne, 5 James Down, 4 Matt Corker, 3 Taione Vea, 2 Nathan Morris, 1 Pablo Henn.

Replacements: 16 Nathan Vella, 17 Shane Cahill, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Dean Schofield, 20 Ben Pienaar, 21 Rob Lewis, 22 Tristan Roberts, 23 Rhys Crane.

Referee: Wayne Barnes

Assistant referees: Stuart Terheege, Nigel Carrick

TMO: Geoffrey Warren

Exeter Chiefs v London Irish

(Sandy Park – Kick-off: 15.00; 14.00 GMT)

Teams:

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Phil Dollman, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Sam Hill, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Will Chudley, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Don Armand, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Damian Welch, 4 Mitch Lees, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Jack Yeandle (captain), 1 Carl Rimmer.

Replacements: 16 Elvis Taione, 17 Brett Sturgess, 18 Moray Low, 19 Ryan Caldwell, 20 Kai Horstmann, 21 Haydn Thomas, 22 Ian Whitten, 23 Tom James.

Referee: Ian Tempest

Assistant referees: Peter Huckle, Andrew Pearce

TMO: David Grashoff

Saracens v Gloucester

(Allianz Park – Kick-off: 15.00; 14.00 GMT)

Teams:

Saracens: 15 Ben Ransom, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Chris Wyles, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9. Richard Wigglewsorth, 8 Billy Vunipola. 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Ernst Joubert, 5 Alistair Hargreaves (captain), 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Kieran Longbottom, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Richard Barrington.

Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 James Johnston, 19 George Kruis, 20 Will Fraser, 21 Neil De Kock 22 Marcelo Bosch, 23 Alex Goode.

Referee: Dean Richards

Assistant referees: Ross Campbell, Kelvin Stewart

TMO: Trevor Fisher

Northampton Saints v Sale Sharks

(Franklin's Gardens – Kick-off: 15.15; 14.15 GMT)

Teams:

Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 Jamie Elliott, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Samu Manoa, 7 Jon Fisher, 6 Tom Wood (captain), 5 James Craig, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Mike Haywood, 1 Alex Waller.

Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Gareth Denman, 19 Christian Day, 20 Calum Clark, 21 Kahn Fotuali'i, 22 James Wilson, 23 George North.

Referee: Andrew Small

Assistant referees: Simon Mcconnell, Roger Baileff

TMO: Keith Lewis

Sunday, October 12

London Wasps v Bath

(Adams Park – Kick-off: 14.00; 13.00 GMT)

Teams:

Wasps: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Alapati Leiua, 11 Salosi Tagicakibau, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 James Haskell (captain), 6 Ashley Johnson, 5 Bradley Davies, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Matt Mullan.

Replacements: 16 Tom Lindsay, 17 John Yapp, 18 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 19 James Gaskell, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Rob Millar, 23 Chris Bell.

Referee: JP Doyle

Assistant referees: Roy Maybank, Paul Burton

TMO: Sean Davey