NEWCASTLE Falcons can reach Twickenham for the third time in six years tomorrow when they entertain Pertemps Bees in the semi-final of the Powergen Cup (2.15).

It promises to be the culmination of a relatively easy run to the April 17 final, which has so far involved wins away to Rotherham and at home to London Irish.

But Director of Rugby Rob Andrew stresses that the Falcons will not be taking their Division One opponents lightly, especially after they won 28-24 away to Wasps in the quarter-finals.

"The Bees are a good side and they dominated the last 20 minutes against Wasps," he said. "They have a good pack, a No 10 who kicks goals and in Phil Maynard a good coach with a wealth of experience."

The BBC cameras are staying on to record an episode of Rugby Speical at Kingston Park, during which they will be talking to Andrew and Will Carling.

"We have prepared as we would for any other match," added Andrew. "They have players who could play in the Premiership and some who have done, including Jim Jenner."

No 8 Jenner spent one season with Newcastle, which climaxed with him scoring one of their four tries in beating Harlequins 30-27 in the 2001 cup final.

That was the year when Birmingham and Solihull, as Pertemps Bees were previously known, scrambled to a 16-10 home win against Darlington Mowden Park in the fourth round to reach the last 16.

Jenner went on to have two seasons with Worcester before retiring from full-time rugby and joining the part-time squad at Solihull.

He counts winning the cup with Newcastle as the highlight of his career and is aware that half the Falcons on duty that day will be playing tomorrow.

They are just as keen as Jenner to repeat the Twickenham experience and are determined that the Bees will not become the first side from outside the top division to reach the final.

Newcastle sent their spies to watch the Bees lose to Orrell last week, but they will have learnt more from the video of the Wasps match.

"If we had played as badly against Wasps as we did against Orrell we would have lost by 100 points," said Maynard. "We know Newcastle will do us no favours, but we will enjoy the weekend."

Two years before beating Quins the Falcons lost 29-19 to Wasps in the 1999 final and the only survivors from the starting line-up that day in tomorrow's match are Tom May and Marius Hurter.

Hurter made way after 70 minutes for Ian Peel and they are the two props tomorrow with Micky Ward on the bench.

Epi Taione is likely to be out for three weeks with a knee injury suffered in training, so Michael Stephenson returns after scoring a hat-trick in the second team's 61-22 win against Leicester last week.

His performance confirmed his full recovery from a dislocated elbow, while of the other experienced backs who played in that match Ben Gollings and New Zealander Daryl Lilley have earned places on the bench tomorrow ahead of Martin Shaw and Mark Wilkinson.

Joe Shaw gets the vote at full back and Nick Makin starts at hooker ahead of Matt Thompson, who has just recovered from injury.

Darlington Mowden Park have Kelekolio Paino in their squad for the first time since October for the National Three North match at home to Fylde.

The lock has recovered from his knee injury and will be on the bench, but fellow Tongan Suka Hufanga is still not fit to make his debut after his hamstring problem resurfaced in training.

Dave Richardson was also injured during training on Thursday, suffering a stress fracture of the foot which will rule him out for three to four weeks.

Full back Iain Dixon, centre Gareth Kerr and hooker Tasi Tuhana return after injury, while James Tyrrell is on the wing as Pedro Salahshouri picked up a dead leg playing for the seconds against Middlesbrough last week.

Danny Brown starts at prop ahead of Dave Sinclair, who is on the bench.

With Craig and Paul Lee well ensconced, Darlington have a second pair of brothers in the backs at Dudley Kingswinford as Dave Haswell has recovered from the leg injury which has sidelined him for four months.

With his brother Graham retained at full back, Haswell senior comes in at centre in place of Mark Butler.

Tosh McIntee returns on the wing as Darlington revert to starting with Rob Stewart at scrum half and David Andrew on the bench.

In the North Two East derby at Stockton, promotion-chasing Middlesbrough will start with John Dixon at lock and Paul Johnson on the bench. Neil Parkin returns to the back row for Mark Hatfield.

West Hartlepool have Tim Sawyer back for the trip to Sandal after playing for the England Deaf XV. He will play either at hooker or in the back row if Henry Tones fails a fitness test.