Tuilagi: Back for the Tigers

The match at Sandy Park will present the Chiefs with an opportunity to cement their place within the top six in the standings and to produce another win double after claiming a 30-28 victory in the corresponding fixture at Welford Road back in September.

After resting during the past fortnight during the LV= Cup, the majority of the Chiefs frontline troops return for this crucial block of Premiership fixtures in which three of the next four will be staged at Sandy Park.

And according to Baxter, this next month will be a key period in the club's seasonal objectives.

"Obviously everybody can see it's a pretty close league right now," he said.

"If Leicester can get some decent points this weekend that will help cement themselves in the top four, a position where they want to be.

"But if we can get some points, then we can start to challenge that top half and that's a fantastic goal for us.

"It's like anything if you can take points in home games, everything becomes easier for you.

"We have got three out of four at home in the next month, so if we are not targeting these games then there is something wrong with our ambition," added Baxter.

Meanwhile, Manu Tuilagi and Toby Flood return to the Leicester team for the trip to Sandy Park.

Fly-half Flood came through half an hour of last weekend's win over Newcastle Falcons following his recovery from a knee injury, while centre Tuilagi is included for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury in the victory at Worcester at the end of December.

Skipper Geordan Murphy, wing Alesana Tuilagi and back-rower Julian Salvi are among those who return after sitting out the cup action in the last fortnight.

Fly-half George Ford, who captained England U20s to victory over Scotland last weekend, returns to club duty and is named among the replacements.

Leicester's director of rugby Richard Cockerill is delighted with the return of Tuilagi and Flood.

"It's good to have Toby and Manu back to fitness," he said. "This is an important phase of the season for us. We've been in good form and we obviously need to maintain that.

"Exeter are a tough, physical side and hard to beat, and we see ourselves as a tough side who are also hard to beat so it should be a really good game."

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Phil Dollman, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Nic Sestaret, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Aly Muldowney, 4 Tom Hayes (c), 3 Hoani Tui, 2 Neil Clark, 1 Brett Sturgess.Replacements: 16 Chris Whitehead, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Craig Mitchell, 19 James Phillips, 20 Ben White, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Bryan Rennie.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Steve Mafi, 5 George Skivington, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Logoviii Mulipola, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Ben Woods, 21 James Grindal, 22 George Ford, 23 Matt Smith.