Rugby
Falcons Team Against London Irish
21 September 2007
Newcastle Falcons have made four changes to their team ahead of Sunday’s Guinness Premiership trip to the Madejski Stadium, where they take on London Irish.
John Rudd returns on the left wing after the ankle injury which saw his late withdrawal from last Sunday’s emphatic opening day win over Sale Sharks, while Steve Jones slots in at fly half for Toby Flood following his World Cup call-up.
All Black Mark Mayerhofler misses out with a hand injury picked up against the Sharks, while a shoulder injury from the same match rules out Andy Buist as Tom Dillon and Andy Perry take their places respectively.
On the bench there is a return for fit-again South African No.8 Russell Winter after neck trouble, while Middlesex Sevens winners Ollie Phillips, Lee Dickson and Adam Dehaty also wait in reserve.
Director of rugby, John Fletcher, refused to get carried away with a buoyant performance and a 33-12 win over Sale last Sunday, stating: “I expected a win, I thought we would win and we did win, but that’s what the players are paid to do so you won’t see us singing and dancing about it.
“Naturally a victory brings confidence, and winning is a habit so it’s good to get off to a start like that so early in the season. It was a good start, not a perfect one, but to get five points from the game puts us in reasonable spirits going in to this weekend. Tactically we played much better, but there are still a lot of areas where we can improve so we’re not patting ourselves on the back after one win.”
The Falcons go in to Sunday’s clash at the Madejski Stadium minus last weekend’s man of the match, Toby Flood, following his World Cup call-up, but Fletcher was at pains to point out that the opening day triumph was no one-man show.
“Toby kicked well and got us in to good positions, but if you look at his handling and distribution he only had an okay game and there was still plenty for him to work on,” he said.
“A lot of the attention was on Toby afterwards, but we had big performances from a lot of the backs including Tom May, James Grindal and Matt Burke who got us where we wanted to be on the field, and from a pack which won solid ball and made a load of dominant tackles. I’ve seen Toby have better games to be totally honest, and he knows he can still improve on what was still a good showing last Sunday, but obviously to have one of your top players unavailable for selection isn’t ideal.
“Having said that, if you’d watched us train this week you might think that England had taken the wrong player, because Steve Jones has been absolutely sensational. He’s been flying around all week in training and personally I’m just looking forward to seeing him translate that sort of form on to the Guinness Premiership stage.”
With points to prove against the Exiles, Fletcher said: “Irish did the double on us last year, so we’re pretty keen to put that right.
“I don’t read a huge amount in to last weekend’s defeat against Harlequins at Twickenham, because having watched the tape a number of times I thought Irish played pretty well and were actually the better team on the day. Quins scored some tries where they didn’t have to work too hard, but Irish played a lot of the rugby and were unlucky to drop the ball twice over the line. They had lots of chances, and they will be a massive threat this weekend because they have a lot of talented players.
“It’s always tough down there because traditionally they fight and they work hard, but what they’ve done over the last two years is add bags of pace to that mix. Their back three is the quickest in the Guinness Premiership, and it should be a good test for us.
“The match down there last season was an absolute belter, with both teams moving the ball around and playing the game the way it should be played. They have a big pack, they win a lot of good quality ball and now with their added creativity in the midfield they ask a lot of questions of you as a side. I expect it to be a fairly open game, but we go down there trying to take them on and I think the supporters should be looking forward to watching these two teams playing each other.”
With only a minor smattering of injuries so far in his squad, Fletcher said of his selection: “Mark Mayerhofler and Andy Buist both picked up injuries against Sale and would have been strong contenders to keep their places, but having said that Andy Perry and Steve Jones both did good jobs when they came on and I have no qualms at all about starting them on Sunday.
“With the other changes to the side, Tom Dillon has been the form player in the Development Team over a consistent period of time, and John Rudd has recovered from an ankle injury so he slots back on the left wing for Ollie Phillips, who actually had a good game against Sale and is unlucky to miss out.
“Apart from Ross Beattie’s ongoing shoulder treatment the only other injury we have is Jason Oakes, the man with the bionic knees, who should be back in the next week or two, and another positive for us is the return to fitness of Russell Winter who is on the bench this weekend.”
Looking to the season as a whole after his winning start, Fletcher added: “Since the day I first came here I’ve never gone in to any game expecting to lose, because I’ve got massive belief in the people I work with and the players we have here.
“We can beat anybody, as we have proven, and I feel we’re a very underestimated team. Saying that, our league position over the past few years doesn’t lie and we have to add consistency to our list of qualities to take us on to the next level, so that’s where the focus is right now.”
Newcastle Falcons team to face London Irish:
- 15 Matthew Burke
- 14 Tom May
- 13 Tom Dillon
- 12 Joe Shaw
- 11 John Rudd
- 10 Steve Jones
- 9 James Grindal
- 1 Joe McDonnell
- 2 Matt Thompson
- 3 Micky Ward
- 4 Andy Perry
- 5 Mark Sorenson
- 6 Geoff Parling
- 7 Ben Woods
- 8 Phil Dowson (captain)
Replacements:
- Andy Long
- David Wilson
- Russell Winter
- Brent Wilson
- Lee Dickson
- Adam Dehaty
- Ollie Phillips
Not considered due to injury: Ross Beattie (shoulder), Jason Oakes (knee), Andy Buist (shoulder), Mark Mayerhofler (hand).
» top | more articles | 
| 
| shown 109 times
