Scott Bemand will start against Leicester for the third time this season on Sunday – because Steve Meehan has been so impressed with how he has played against his former club.

Bemand will be handed the No 9 shirt even though first-choice Michael Claassens is fit and available for the trip to Welford Road.

Claassens must make do with a place on the bench despite his two-try heroics in last weekend's win over Northampton – and head coach Meehan says Bemand thoroughly deserves his latest opportunity.

Bath signed Bemand from Leicester last summer – and he has settled quickly at the Recreation Ground, making 14 appearances and performing well when Claassens missed six weeks with a knee injury.

"Scott Bemand has come in because we are playing his former club – and he played well against them down here," said Meehan.

"Michael Claassens has had a big workload since coming back from his knee injury and I would still expect him to get a reasonable amount of time off the bench.

"But Scott has been progressively getting better over the course of the season, he is in good nick physically and this is a good opportunity for him.

"He really enjoys playing against Leicester and he is excited about the opportunity."

Meehan has opted to name Claassens on the bench at a time when he is also without rested England stars Lee Mears and Matt Stevens and the injured Matt Banahan, Shaun Berne and Danny Grewcock.

In-form winger Banahan, with four tries in his last three matches, was ruled out yesterday after suffering stiffness in his neck during the 25-14 win over Northampton.

"He was apparently feeling good today – but we looked at him on Thursday and he was 50-50 at that stage," said Meehan last night.

"We have got Leicester, Wasps, Newport Gwent Dragons and Toulouse in our next four games – and we don't want him to be 50-50 for each of them. I would rather he was 100 per cent for three of them.

"In terms of his confidence and his performance, he needs to be 100 per cent right physically, so that is the reason he is not playing this weekend.

"At the same time, it gives Andrew Higgins an opportunity – and he has been training very well recently."

Leicester will be coached by Richard Cockerill tomorrow as head coach Heyneke Meyer has returned to South Africa due to a family illness.

The Tigers, missing their boss, are also without England fly-half Toby Flood, who is rested under the same agreement that sees Mears and Stevens sit out. His replacement is former Springbok Derrick Hougaard, who will come up against compatriot Butch James.

Leicester: G Murphy; S Hamilton, D Hipkiss, A Mauger, M Smith; D Hougaard, J Dupuy; B Stankovich, B Kayser, J White, M Corry (capt), B Kay, T Croft, L Moody, J Crane. Reps: G Chuter, M Castrogiovanni, M Wentzel, C Newby, B Youngs, S Rabeni, J Murphy.

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, A Crockett, S Hape, A Higgins; B James, S Bemand; D Barnes, P Dixon, D Bell, J Harrison, P Short, A Beattie, M Lipman (capt), D Browne. Reps: R Hawkins, A Jarvis, S Hooper, J Fa'amatuainu, M Claassens, E Fuimaono, J Cuthbert.