NEWCASTLE FALCONS have kept their changes to a minimum as they attempt to claim their first league win since mid-January when they travel to Sale Sharks for their penultimate game of the Aviva Premiership season.

Falcons take on Sale tomorrow looking to build on last month’s spirited showing in a 42-40 defeat to Gloucester in their most recent outing.

With a Danny Cipriani-inspired Sale having won the reverse fixture at Kingston Park in late November, Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards has made just two changes to the side that was edged out at Kingsholm as he looks to extract revenge.

Adam Powell comes into the starting line-up at outside centre to replace Chris Harris, who left the field early with a stinger to his shoulders a fortnight ago, while in the pack, Calum Green returns to the second row in place of Italian lock Josh Furno.

The settled outlook continues on the bench, where five of the eight replacements are as they were against Gloucester.

Sale’s main threat is once again likely to be posed by England fly-half Cipriani, but Falcons head coach John Wells insists his players cannot afford to become fixated on just one of their opponents, no matter how influential he might have been this season.

“You can spend too much time trying to worry about one guy, and spend your whole week going, ‘What are we going to do against Cipriani’,” said Wells. “The way we make life difficult for him is by making sure our defensive structure is in place so we don’t give him the opportunity to run round us, or step us.

“We can limit the quality of ball he gets so he has to go looking for opportunities as opposed to it being put on a plate, and then it is about having one or two contingenices.

“A lot of their qualities are not that different to ours, but coming up with the right play at the right time makes such a big impact.”

Newcastle Falcons: Hammersley, Tait, Powell, Socino, Sinoti, Clegg, Tipuna; Vickers, Lawson, Brookes, Green, Thompson, M Wilson, Welch, Hogg.

Replacements: McGuigan, Fry, Orlandi, Witty, R Mayhew, Blair, Alesana Tuilagi, Anitelea Tuilagi.