Leicester Tigers welcome back Geordan Murphy, Ben Youngs and Julian Salvi for the Aviva Premiership Rugby derby against Northampton Saints on Saturday

Skipper Murphy has recovered from a knee injury, while Youngs has been released from the England squad after missing last Saturday's match at Gloucester.

Salvi returns to the back row and is joined by Steve Mafi and summer signing Richard Thorpe.

There are calls for Marcos Ayerza, George Chuter and Martin Castrogiovanni in the front row, and George Ford starts at fly-half.

Dan Bowden returns to the matchday squad and back-rower Michael Noone is included among the replacements for the first time.

Leicester Tigers lost 21-27 at Gloucester on Saturday but have not lost successive Aviva Premiership Rugby encounters since October last year.

Since September 2011 the Tigers have lost just two games at Welford Road " both to Harlequins.

Northampton Saints have slipped to back to back Premiership defeats for the first time since September 2011.

Leicester have won their last five fixtures with Northampton in all competitions, whilst the Saints only win at Welford Road since 2003 was 10-9 on 24 February 2007.

Northampton Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder believes that there were plenty of good things to take from his team's performance in their loss to Saracens.

"Of course we want to win, but rugby is also about the way you play and there has been plenty to build on from our previous games," he said. "We've looked at our past performances and there have been bits where we've played well and bits where we haven't. "

"Of course we've worked on those areas and while it's going to be a massive challenge at Welford Road it's one that we're up for.

"We've got a good side who have had the right attitude in training, and hopefully we'll have the right performance which will lead to the result we want."

Saturday's game is a 24,000 sell-out at Welford Road.

Match : Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints
Date : Saturday 3rd November
Venue : Welford Road
Kick Off : 2.15pm
Live on: ESPN HD
Referee: Greg Garner (39th Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Peter Huckle, Gareth Copsey.
TMO: Trevor Fisher

Teams

Leicester Tigers

15 Geordan Murphy (c) , 14 Scott Hamilton , 13 Matt Smith , 12 Anthony Allen , 11 Niall Morris , 10 George Ford , 9 Ben Youngs , 1 Marcos Ayerza , 2 George Chuter , 3 Martin Castrogiovanni , 4 Louis Deacon , 5 Graham Kitchener , 6 Steve Mafi , 7 Julian Salvi , 8 Richard Thorpe

Replacements , 16 Jimmy Stevens , 17 Boris Stankovich , 18 Fraser Balmain , 19 Ed Slater , 20 Michael Noone , 21 Sam Harrison , 22 Dan Bowden , 23 Vereniki Goneva

Northampton Saints: 15 Tom May 14 Ken Pisi 13 George Pisi 12 Dom Waldouck 11 Jamie Elliott 10 Ryan Lamb 9 Martin Roberts 8 GJ Van Velze 7 Phil Dowson (capt) 6 Calum Clark 5 Mark Sorenson 4 Samu Manoa 3 Brian Mujati 2 Mike Haywood 1 Soane Tonga'uiha

Replacements: 16 Ross Mcmillan 17 Alex Waller 18 Paul Doran Jones 19 Ben Nutley 20 Rhys Oakley 21 Alex Day 22 Luther Burrell 23 Vasily Artemyev