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Montoya to make first start for Leicester Tigers

(Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)

Argentina international Julian Montoya will make his starting appearance for the Leicester Tigers, against Worcester Warriors at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday in the Gallagher Premiership Round 8 match.

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Richard Wigglesworth will captain the side. The scrum-half will be backed up by Fiji international Nemani Nadolo on the wing and club captain Tom Youngs from the bench. Wigglesworth partners Zack Henry as the half-backs, with international duo Matt Scott and Matías Moroni combining in the midfield.

An unchanged back three of Nadolo, Kobus Van Wyk and Freddie Steward completes the Tigers backline.

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‘I remember being tackled by Jonny acctually’

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‘I remember being tackled by Jonny acctually’

In the front row, Julián Montoya makes his first starting appearance alongside props Luan de Bruin and Dan Cole. After arriving at Tigers in mid-January, the Argentina international was used from the bench for his debut against Sale Sharks last weekend.

Montoya’s international team-mate Tomás Lavanini returns to the starting team alongside Calum Green in the second of three changes to the Leicester pack.

In the back row, Cyle Brink is included to form an all-South African unit alongside Hanro Liebenberg and Jasper Wiese. Youngs, who made his 200th appearance for the club in Round 7, is joined by Nephi Leatigaga, Joe Heyes, Harry Wells and George Martin as the forwards on the Tigers bench.

Fiji international Kini Murimurivalu is included alongside Jack Van Poortvliet and Johnny McPhillips as the replacement backs.

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“It’s important that this squad delivers an 80-minute performance,” said Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick. “We are all looking forward to the match and, as a coaching team, we are happy to have some continuity in our line-up and to have the chance to continue to work on the combinations in this Tigers team and build the relationships between guys who have not played a lot of rugby together.”

“Worcester are a good, tough rugby team with experience across the side and a good understanding of one another out on the pitch.

“We are going to have to play very well this weekend against a Worcester team coming to Mattioli Woods Welford Road on the back of a good performance in the last round.”

Leicester Tigers
15 Freddie Steward
14 Kobus Van Wyk
13 Matías Moroni
12 Matt Scott
11 Nemani Nadolo
10 Zack Henry
9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Luan de Bruin
2 Julián Montoya
3 Dan Cole
4 Tomás Lavanini
5 Calum Green
6 Hanro Liebenberg
7 Cyle Brink
8 Jasper Wiese

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REPLACEMENTS
16 Tom Youngs
17 Nephi Leatigaga
18 Joe Heyes
19 Harry Wells
20 George Martin
21 Jack Van Poortvliet
22 Johnny McPhillips
23 Kini Murimurivalu

DETAILS: Welford Road, Kick-off, 3pm

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I
IkeaBoy 56 minutes ago
How Leinster bullied the Bulls at Croke Park

Expert coaches exist across the land and the IRFU already funds plenty. Ulster own their academy and who owns Ulster?


If you go to school in the North and rugby/tag rugby isn’t even on the PE curriculum until 12/13 as opposed to 7 or 8 in Leinster, how is that the IRFU’s fault? Even then, it’s only certain schools in the North that will offer it. On what basis would they go up to the North (strictly speaking, another country in the eyes of some) and dictate their schools programme?


The ABs used to be light years ahead of the pack because their eventual test superstars had been playing structured, competitive rugby from an average age of 5/6! On top of kicking it around the yard from the age they could walk with their rugby mad parents and older siblings.


Have you somehow gotten the impression that the Leinster system is not working for Irish rugby? What is that based on? The SARU should just stop competing because despite their back to back RWC’s, all 4 of their URC teams aren’t contesting semi-finals every year?


A couple of mining towns basically provided a Welsh team in the 70’s that were unplayable. Queensland in the old Super 10 provided the spine of an Oz team that were the first to win multiple world cups and in the same decade. The ABs population density is well documented with 35% of the population living around one city.


Is England’s match day 23 equally represented by mid-counties players, tough as nails northerners, a couple from Cornwall, a pack of manc’s and a lone Geordie? Ever?

It’s cute they won’t relegate the Falcons but has a Geordie test player ever hit 50 caps?


It’s ok not to understand geography. It’s also ok not to understand sport. Not understanding the geography of sport is something different entirely.

265 Go to comments
f
fl 3 hours ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

I ultimately don’t care who the best club team in the world is, so yeah, lets agree to disagree on that.


I would appreciate clarity on a couple of things though:

Where did I contradict myself?

Saying “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” is entirely compatible with ranking a team as the best - over an extended period - when they have won more games and made more finals than other comparable teams. It would be contradictory for me to say “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” and then completely ignore Leinster record of winning games and making finals.


“You can get frustrated and say I am not reading what you write, but when you quote me, then your first line is to say thats true (what I wrote), but by the end of the paragraph have stated something different, thats where you contradict yourself.”

What you said (that I think trophies matter) is true, in that I said “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.”. Do you understand that Leinster won more games and made more finals than any other (URC-based) team did under the period under consideration?


“Pointless comparison on Blackburn and Tottenham to this discussion as no-one includes them on a list of the best club. I would say that Blackburns title season was better than anything Tottenham have done in the Premier League. My reference to the league was that the team who finished second over two seasons are not better than the two other teams who did win the league each time. One of the best - of course, but not the best, which is relevant to my point here about Leinster, not comparing teams who won 30 years ago against a team that never won.”

I really don’t understand why you would think that this is irrelevant. You seem to be saying that winning trophies is the only thing that matters when assessing who is the best, but doesn’t matter at all when assessing who is 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.


“What I referred to in my Leinster wouldn’t say the were the best is your post earlier where you said Leinster were the best overall. You said that in two separate posts. Seasons dont work like that, they are individual. Unless the same team keeps winning then you can say they were the best over a period of time and group them, but thats not the case here.”

Well then we’ve just been talking at cross purposes. In that my position (that Leinster were the best team overall in 2022-2024) was pretty clear, and you just decided to respond to a different point (whether Leinster were the best team individually in particular years) essentially making the entire discussion completely pointless. I guess if you think that trophies are the only thing that matters then it makes sense to see the season as an individual event that culminates in a trophy (or not), whereas because I believe that trophies matter a lot, but that so does winning matches and making finals, it makes it easier for me to consider quality over an extended period.

24 Go to comments
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