Rugby
Falcons meet tigers
24 January 2008
Newcastle Falcons have named their team for Saturday's Guinness Premiership trip to Leicester Tigers.
Having been rested from last weekend's 15-try demolition of Spanish champions Cetransa El Salvador, Carl Hayman, Jon Golding, Andy Long, Andy Perry, Tom May, John Rudd, Jonny Wilkinson and James Grindal all return to the line-up.
Coming in to the game on the back of their Spanish success, asked if they could take their European form in to this weekend's encounter, director of rugby John Fletcher joked: "I wouldn't have thought we'll beat Leicester 97-0 at Welford Road, to be fair! Last week was what it was. It was the game we had to play, but we're well aware of what we have coming this weekend and how difficult it will be."
Asked what he can expect from the game, he said: "There will be no surprises down there. You know what you're going to get with Leicester, and it's just a case of can you get yourself in to the game, can you get enough ball to impose your style on to the play and can you get enough points to be in with a shout of winning it with 10 or 15 minutes to go."
Having returned a number of rested players to his side after a weekend off against El Salvador, Fletcher explained the selection dilemmas, stating: "A number of players have been knocking on my door this week asking why they aren't playing, but those are the decisions I have to make as a director of rugby and I believe we have a very strong side capable of going down there and asking them serious questions.
"The whole squad wants to play, they all think they should be in the starting XV every week and rightly so, that's the attitude I want them to have. But the reality is that we can only put 15 out on the pitch and another seven on the bench. When guys don't play they get cheesed off, that's just the nature of sport, and it's up to me to deal with that."
With Welford Road having not always been a happy hunting ground for the Falcons, Fletcher said: "We had a big, big hiding down there a few years ago which was massively embarrassing for us as a club, but since then we've drawn at Welford Road and beaten them a couple of times up here. We beat them pretty comfortably at second team level a fortnight ago, and while we do respect them I wouldn't say we fear them. I'm sure the same applies if you ask their coach about us, because you're dealing with two good teams."
With home advantage and a vocal crowd set to greet the Falcons, asked about the playing surface and how that might affect proceedings, Fletcher stated: "The pitch at Welford Road doesn't help us, because it's undoubtedly the smallest in the league, if not the entire country!
"They play the pitch very well, it's a huge part of what they are about but it's just up to us to deal with that, because both sides are playing on the same field. On a pitch that small you can punt from goal line to goal line with the bounce, you can hit penalties from well inside your own half and we have to look to integrate those sorts of things in to our game."
Having watched Tigers defeat Leinster in Heineken Cup action last weekend, Fletcher said of Saturday's opponents: "One thing you always get with Leicester is intensity. They will come hard at your set piece and incredibly hard at the tackle area. The breakdown will be contested like it's never been contested before, because that's very much what they are about. They need to stop teams from playing because of how they defend. If they do that, which they often do, then it will be a long old afternoon for us, but our focus is on getting the ball away from that breakdown area and playing our own game. I'm very confident that we can go down there and win. That's not me being crazy, it's just based on having worked with this group of players every single day and knowing what they're capable of. We need to win the ball, keep it, move it around and when we lose it work our nuts off to get it back. If we can do that we will have a chance of winning, but that's all it will be - a chance."
Newcastle Falcons team to face Leicester Tigers:
- 15 Mathew Tait
- 14 Tom May
- 13 Jamie Noon (captain)
- 12 Toby Flood
- 11 John Rudd
- 10 Jonny Wilkinson
- 9 James Grindal
- 1 Jon Golding
- 2 Andy Long
- 3 Carl Hayman
- 4 Andy Perry
- 5 Mark Sorenson
- 6 Brent Wilson
- 7 Ben Woods
- 8 Russell Winter
Replacements:
- 16 Matt Thompson
- 17 Micky Ward
- 18 Geoff Parling
- 19 Phil Dowson
- 20 Lee Dickson
- 21 Tim Visser
- 22 Ollie Phillips
Not considered due to injury: Matthew Burke (knee), James Hoyle (hip).
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