NEWCASTLE Falcons will go into the three home games which could secure their place in Europe without hooker Matt Thompson, son of the club owner David Thompson.

The club have handed Thompson junior a two-week ban after being sent off for fighting in an Under-21 game at Bristol, and Director of Rugby Rob Andrew has also taken a dim view of Richard Arnold's latest sin-binning at Leicester.

Rob Devonshire takes over in the back row from Arnold for tomorrow's game against Bath, who are only four points ahead of bottom club Leeds.

Newcastle also need to win as they have slipped to seventh. With London Irish's place in next season's Heineken European Cup already secured through winning the Powergen Cup, and the Zurich play-off winners also likely to have dual qualification, a top-six place should be good enough for the Falcons.

Andrew appears to have finally grown weary of Arnold's yellow cards as he said: "He has been playing well but he was a bit ill-disciplined against Leicester.

"He cost us four penalties and was sin-binned, and we can't afford that. We gifted Leicester 15 points and it was hugely disappointing. Our discipline and finishing let us down.

"With Europe at stake we have a very important run-in."

Thompson's place on the bench as cover for Steve Brotherstone will go to either Nick Makin or Billy Balshen, while Inga Tuigamala replaces Gareth Maclure on the wing.

With David Walder out for at least two more weeks because of his hamstring injury, Liam Botham continues at full back, while the man who held that position for England last season, Iain Balshaw, has been switched to fly half by Bath.

They hope it will help him to rediscover his sparkle, although it won't do much for his confidence if he compares very unfavourably with Jonny Wilkinson.

Final confirmation that the harsh deduction of two points will not stop Darlington Mowden Park finishing fifth in National Three North should come with defeat for Tynedale at Nuneaton.

The Corbridge club go into their last game one point behind Mowden, but they are allowing six of their players to turn out for Northumberland against Buckinghamshire at Aylesbury.

Five other Tynedale men have opted to play for the club instead, with skipper and lock Keith Johnson being joined by Alan Moses, Andy Roberts, Paul Boston and Phil Belgain.

Although Darlington should still have two matches to play in North Division One they have no fixture today.

The home game against Aspatria, who are battling against relegation, has been arranged for Monday week, and there is a doubt about whether the trip to Wigton will take place.

* The Durham County squad, who trained at Hartlepool in midweek, will hold their final session at Darlington tomorrow before the team is selected to play Yorkshire at Upper Wharfedale next Saturday.

With the losers going into a plate competition, Durham will have to travel to the winner/loser of the Middlesex v Hertfordshire game the following Saturday.

But they face a problem in that several members of their squad have promised to play in the charity match for Teesside Barbarians at Stockton that day.

This is the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Durham County Union and in the initial season they played Yorkshire twice, winning at Leeds and drawing at Darlington.

* Blaydon have been handed a walkover in the Durham Second Teams Cup final as Durham University are unable to raise a side. The match has been held over since March 27, when the students were on vacation, and was due to be held at Durham City today.

*Results from Durham County finals this week were: Lormor Cup under 17s (80th Anniversary) - Gateshead 24 Stockton 12; Schools Union under 14s - Barnard Castle 24 Durham School 27; under 15s - Barnard Castle 33 Durham School 20; clubs under 13s - Darlington 12 Darlington Mowden Park 3