Aaron Mauger returns to the Leicester Tigers line-up for Saturday's Guinness Premiership derby against Northampton Saints at Welford Road.
All Blacks centre Mauger claims his place in a backline which is otherwise unchanged from the starting XV at London Irish last weekend. He takes the place of Dan Hipkiss who is on England duty.
Mefin Davies returns from injury to complete an all-international front row with Marcos Ayerza and Martin Castrogiovanni, while Richard Blaze partners Ben Kay at lock. Geoff Parling moves into the back row, alongside Ben Pienaar and Brett Deacon.
"We got a couple of guys back from England training and having Aaron Mauger back is very good news," said Cockerill.
"Both teams are up there in the table and this is a big game because you want to go into the two-week break from the Guinness Premiership in a decent position to push on again when we come back.
"It's a local derby in front of a big crowd and it is going to be a big day for the club."
Welford Road stages a Tigers double header this Saturday with the Saints clash followed at 7.45pm by a game between the Tigers Academy and British Army Development XV.
A special Help For Heroes day at Welford Road will feature a military marching band before each game, and Help For Heroes wristbands will be on sale.
Tickets are still available for the 24,000 capacity stadium and the new-look Welford Road is already guaranteed to host a record crowd for the East Midlands derby.
Leicester Tigers (v Northampton Saints, Welford Road, Saturday 5.35pm)
15 Scott Hamilton , 14 Lucas Amorosino , 13 Anthony Allen , 12 Aaron Mauger (c), 11 Johne Murphy, 10 Jeremy Staunton , 9 James Grindal, 1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Mefin Davies, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 4 Richard Blaze, 5 Ben Kay, 6 Geoff Parling, 7 Ben Pienaar, 8 Brett Deacon
Replacements: 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Dan Cole, 18 Boris Stankovich, 19 Calum Green, 20 Dan Hemingway, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Andy Forsyth
23 Will Hurrell
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