Leicester v Northampton predictions and rugby union tips: Hosts can pull clear

Free rugby union tips, best bets and analysis for Friday's live Gallagher Premiership match between Leicester and Northampton.

Where to watch

BT Sport 2, 7.45pm Friday

Best bet

Leicester to win by 11 to 20 points
1pt 5-2 bet365

Match preview

Northampton suffered a 55-26 defeat in their home leg of the East Midlands derby and while they can put up more of a fight on their return trip to Welford Road, the Saints look set to come off second-best again.

Both sides will be missing their internationals to Six Nations duty but have strong back-ups. Leicester field an experienced half-back pairing of Richard Wigglesworth and Freddie Burns to replaced Ben Youngs and George Ford, while George Furbank has been released by England to take Dan Biggar's place at fly-half for the Saints.

With Wigglesworth at nine we can expect a strong territorial kicking game and a solid Leicester pack look set to put the home side on the front foot.

Leicester snapped a two-match losing run - their only league defeats of the season - with a home victory over Worcester last week, and retain most of the pack from that success.

It was a straightforward enough win for the Tigers but Northampton will head to Leicester refreshed from a bye week and with back-to-back wins under their belts.

However, Leicester look to have the stronger attacking options, headlined by Fijian powerhouse winger Nemani Nadolo while flankers Hanro Liebenberg and Tommy Reffel both got on the scoresheet last week.

Northampton ran up decent scores in their last two wins against bottom-three sides Newcastle and Worcester but before that suffered double-figure margin defeats to Harlequins and Saracens, shipping nine tries.

Leicester, still unbeaten at home, look to have the scoring edge to pull clear.

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