ENGLAND under 20s flanker Matt Kvesic has been given the nod to replace ankle injury victim Jake Abbott for Worcester Warriors’ Aviva Premiership trip to Leicester Tigers on Friday night (7.45pm).

Warriors have never won at Welford Road - in fact they’ve only ever managed two losing bonus points there - but head coach Richard Hill insists his side are determined to give a good account of themselves.

After a poor start to the season that saw them languishing in 11th spot after the opening few weeks, Tigers have roared back to life and are currently third, seven points behind leaders Harlequins.

Richard Cockerill’s men put Worcester to the sword with a 32-13 victory at Sixways two days after Christmas and Hill insists setting the record straight is a huge motivating factor for his side.

Hill said: “Jake twisted his ankle against Newcastle, but Matt will come in for him and that is a very good replacement to have. Otherwise, by and large, we will be keeping a stable side and it will be pretty much the same team that started against the Falcons.

“There won’t be any need to do a motivational team-talk for this one. Leicester are playing at the top of their game at the moment and are a fantastic team - we’re under no illusions that our defence has to be the best it’s been all season.

“When we beat Saracens at Sixways recently, they battered us for the first 30 minutes - we were hanging in there and were only 8-0 down thanks to some superb defence.

“We will have to defend like that again at Welford Road, but we’ll probably have to do it for 80 minutes, not just 30.”

“Leicester are capable of putting pressure on you for the entire 80 minutes, so it’s going to have to be a huge defensive performance and, to beat them, we are going to have to score tries.”