Leicester v Exeter predictions and rugby union tips: Tigers ready to pounce

Free rugby tips, best bets and analysis for Leicester v Exeter in the Gallagher Premiership.

Where to watch

BT Sport 3, 3pm Saturday

Best bet

Leicester
2pts 11-10 general

Match preview

Exeter are favourites to finish top of the Premiership table but opponents Leicester aren't messing about with the team selection for the teams' round-one meeting at Welford Road and the Tigers look worth backing at odds-against.

It's been all about the collective rather than the individual in Exeter's highly successful recent past, but the Chiefs' absentee list for the start of the season is pretty hefty.

British & Irish Lions players Stuart Hogg, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Johnny Hill and Sam Simmonds are still unavailable, the last three of those from a pack that is also shorn of the services of Dave Ewers, Johnny Gray, Sam Skinner and Jacques Vermeulen.

With England props Ellis Genge and Dan Cole, hard-running Hanro Liebenberg in the back row and powerhouse Fijian Nemani Nadolo on the wing, Leicester will feel they have the physical resources to handle whatever the Chiefs throw at them, and coach Steve Borthwick has emphasised the experience and continuity in the side.

Borthwick knows Leicester have a lot of work to do to return to the glory days of the past, but they have won six of their last eight home Premiership games, their only defeats coming by three points to last season's table-toppers Bristol and by five points to Northampton.

Exeter lost only one of 11 games in the second half of the 2020-21 regular season and when they hit top gear they can prove unstoppable, but Leicester will feel this is a good time to take them on.

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