MARTIN Shaw will make his first Zurich Premiership appearance of the season for Newcastle Falcons at Gloucester today.

The injuries to Jonny Wilkinson and Michael Stephenson, plus the absence of Ben Gollings on England Sevens duty, have forced the Falcons to include Shaw on the wing.

Normally a centre, he spent the early part of the season with Darlington Mowden Park but was recalled to Newcastle three months ago.

He played in the Parker Pen first round first leg away to Spanish club Valladolid, but has otherwise made only two appearances as a replacement, one in the home leg against the Spaniards and the other in the Powergen Cup win at Rotherham.

Now 29, Bishop Auckland-born Shaw has not scaled the heights predicted for him when he played for England Colts and quickly graduated to England Under-21s.

After switching from West Hartlepool to Newcastle, he found himself overshadowed by big signings such as Inga Tuigamala, Tony Underwood, Alan Tait and John Bentley.

Now, after several seasons with Sale, he finds himself in the slipstream of the young bucks such as Jamie Noon, Tom May, Stephenson and Gollings.

Noon is in the England squad for next week's opening Six Nations match in Rome, and with Mike Tindall ruled out, plus question marks over the fitness of Mike Catt and Stuart Abbott, he is probably vying with Henry Paul for a place in the side.

That would further stretch the Falcons for next Sunday's home match against Leeds Tykes, which kicks off at 1pm, but Rob Andrew has declined to recall Gollings.

Along with clubmate Phil Dowson, Gollings is currently in New Zealand and will be in Los Angeles next weekend, but Andrew said: "We are committed to the England Sevens squad."

The absentees will not persuade the Director of Rugby to suspend the fluent style he has been trying to develop and he added: "Gloucester play a similar style to us.

"They like to play it wide and games between us tend to be high-scoring and exciting."

While Gloucester have spent the last two weeks progressing to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, the Falcons have had a fortnight off following their second-round exit from the European Challenge Cup.

Unfortunately, it hasn't helped Mark Andrews to overcome his knee injury and after being appointed captain at the start of the season the South African lock has had a frustrating time.

He has also had a chest problem and there is speculation that he might decide to retire at the end of the season.

Garath Archer has recovered from his back injury and returns alongside Stuart Grimes, who is in the Scotland squad for next week's game against Wales and is unlikely to be available for Newcastle against Leeds.

Epi Taione is ruled out by a hamstring injury so Jon Dunbar will be at blind side, while James Grindal starts at scrum half and Matt Thompson at hooker.

The Falcons Development XV play Leeds at Percy Park on Monday night, when they are expected to include Sean Tomes at lock.

Their request that he should be de-registered by Blaydon in order to switch to Darlington Mowden Park did not go down well at Crow Trees, but the move looks likely to go ahead.

It has not happened in time, however, for Mowden to consider the son of former Scotland lock Alan Tomes for today's trip to Longton, so Luke Monument deputises for unavailable lock Jon Dye.

Tongan international Suka Hufanga makes his debut alongside Martyn Bray at centre and Mark Bedworth is on the bench after recovering from injury. He has been training hard and is expected to feature at some stage against National Three North's bottom club.

Darlington are to start with Paul Shepherd at prop and Joe Oselton on the bench for the visit of Liverpool St Helens. Tom Wilkinson is back at lock after switching to the back row last week, when Andy Carphin had flu.

Darlington are to continue with Mark Butler at centre and Tosh McIntee on the wing, but all that will be subject to change when David Andrew comes off the bench.

The seconds entertain the Royal Logistics Corps, who are travelling up from Bicester and include several Fijians.

Blaydon have again been forced to select Director of Rugby Nick Gandy at scrum half for the trip to leaders Halifax.

Nick Williams trained on Tuesday then suffered a reaction to his shoulder injury, but Matt Dehaty is fit to join Peter Kilburn in the club's strongest centre pairing.

With Colin Duncan unavailable and Simon Barber injured, David Dalrymple is likely to be on the wing with Dan Clappison back in his best position at full back.

Blaydon have been asked by Waterloo to consider playing last week's postponed match under the Crow Trees floodlights in midweek.

That's because their early-season Powergen Cup run had already left Waterloo with three matches to fit in on the vacant Saturdays. If it proves impossible to arrange a midweek date, the match will be on April 24.

Novos, the North-East's last representatives in the national cups, are at home to Leodiensians in the sixth round of the Junior Vase, with a place in the last eight awaiting the winners.

Novos are in mid-table in Durham and Northumberland Two, while their Leeds-based visitors are in a similar position in Yorkshire Two.