{"id":191882,"date":"2025-12-19T14:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/191882\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T14:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:40:16","slug":"leicester-tigers-v-gloucester-team-news-england-star-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/191882\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester Tigers v Gloucester team news: England star returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

England second-row Ollie Chessum is set to make his return from injury on Friday after being named in Leicester Tigers\u2019 squad to face Gloucester in the Slater Cup.<\/p>\n

The British and Irish Lion\u2019s return is a huge boost and he will make his comeback via the replacements bench where he is joined by England team-mate Jack van Poortvliet.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Australia centre Izaia Perese returns at Mattioli Woods Welford Road as the only change to the starting line-up from last week\u2019s away fixture against Leinster.<\/p>\n

Joining Chessum<\/a> and Van Poortvliet on the bench is England A prop Tarek Haffar and hooker Charlie Clare, with Van Poortvliet set to make his 100th match for Leicester.<\/p>\n

Tigers\u2019 starting scrum-half, Tom Whiteley, is poised to make his 50th senior appearance and will partner Billy Searle in the half-backs, with Solomone Kata alongside Perese.<\/p>\n

Freddie Steward starts at full-back and Adam Radwan and Ollie Hassell-Collins once again get the wing shirts, with the pair having crossed against Leinster last time out.<\/p>\n

Up front and it is as you were for the Leicester<\/a> front-row as prop duo Nicky Smith and Joe Heyes run out alongside hooker Jamie Blamire against the Cherry and Whites.<\/p>\n

PREM latest: Wales international makes cross-league switch as length of deal confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Openside flanker Tommy Reffell captains the side and is joined in the back-row by James Thompson (blindside) and number eight Joaquin Moro as the PREM<\/a> action returns.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, All Blacks tighthead prop Nepo Laulala returns from his suspension in the Gloucester<\/a> front-row, joining Val Rapava Ruskin and Seb Blake at the coalface on Friday.<\/p>\n

Freddie Thomas will pack down with vice captain Arthur Clark as the locks, with Josh Basham, Lewis Ludlow and Jack Clement completing the forwards in the back-row.<\/p>\n

After recently confirming he will depart at the end of the season, Tomos Williams starts alongside Ross Byrne, with Seb Atkinson and Will Butler the centre combination.<\/p>\n

Ollie Thorley, Rob Russell and Charlie Atkinson round out the starting XV.<\/p>\n

On the bench, Jack Innard, Jamal Ford-Robinson and Afo Fasogbon cover the front-row, with Cam Jordan and Harry Taylor also in reserve for the loose forwards.<\/p>\n

Mikey Austin, Will Knight and Josh Hathaway are also included as replacements.<\/p>\n

The teams<\/p>\n

Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Izaia Perese, 12 Solomone Kata, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Billy Searle, 9 Tom Whiteley, 8 Joaquin Moro, 7 Tommy Reffell (c), 6 James Thompson, 5 Harry Wells, 4 Cameron Henderson, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Nicky Smith
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 Tarek Haffar, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Sam Williams, 21 Jack van Poortvliet, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Joseph Woodward<\/p>\n

Gloucester: 15 Charlie Atkinson, 14 Rob Russell, 13 Will Butler, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Tomos Williams (c), 8 Jack Clement, 7 Lewis Ludlow, 6 Josh Basham, 5 Arthur Clark, 4 Freddie Thomas, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Seb Blake, 1 Val Rapava Ruskin
Replacements: 16 Jack Innard, 17 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 18 Afo Fasogbon, 19 Cam Jordan, 20 Harry Taylor, 21 Mikey Austin, 22 Will Knight, 23 Josh Hathaway<\/p>\n

Date: Friday, December 19
Venue: Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium
Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
Referee: Karl Dickson
Assistant Referees: Ian Tempest & Neil Chivers
TMO: Andrew Jackson<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Saracens star has citing \u2018dismissed\u2019 following \u2018dangerous\u2019 tackle on Makazole Mapimpi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England second-row Ollie Chessum is set to make his return from injury on Friday after being named in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[65703,1463,115283,111,43,139,69,119596,13180,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-191882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gloucester","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-leicester-tigers","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-ollie-chessum","16":"tag-premiership","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}