Trio of snubbed England players to start Leicester's Champions Cup clash

Three major England omissions are set to start for Leicester Tigers as they take on Bordeaux Bègles at Welford Road in the Heineken Champions Cup.

George Ford, George Martin and Nic Dolly were all left out of Eddie Jones' 36-man Guinness Six Nations that was named on Tuesday.

Ford will captain the side at fly-half but he could yet get a call from Jones' with news breaking that Owen Farrell is likely to be unavailable for England's opening match of the tournament against Scotland on February 5th.

A Saracens statement read: “Owen Farrell suffered an injury in training this week ahead of the game against London Irish, ruling him out of the match. Owen was back in full training having recovered from the ankle injury he sustained against Australia during the Autumn internationals. We will have a further update after he sees a specialist early next week.”

There is however room in the side for a number of England call-ups. Joe Heyes starts at tighthead, while Ollie Chessum gets the nod at lock. England fullback Freddie Steward is named at fullback and England veteran Ben Youngs starts at nine, with Ellis Genge named on the bench.

Leicester Tigers' head coach Steve Borthwick said: “Bordeaux are an incredible side, probably the best team in Europe, and a club that boasts a wealth of resource as you can see through the depth and talent within their ranks.

“It will be a massive challenge for us on Saturday afternoon against what is a tremendous side coming to Mattioli Woods Welford Road.”

LEICESTER TIGERS:

15 Bryce Hegarty

14 Freddie Steward

13 Matt Scott

12 Dan Kelly

11 Hosea Saumaki

10 George Ford (c)

9 Ben Youngs

1 James Whitcombe

2 Nic Dolly

3 Joe Heyes

4 Ollie Chessum

5 Calum Green

6 George Martin

7 Tommy Reffell

8 Jasper Wiese

REPLACEMENTS

16 Charlie Clare

17 Ellis Genge

18 Nephi Leatigaga

19 Eli Snyman

20 Harry Wells

21 Jack van Poortvliet

22 Freddie Burns

23 Guy Porter