WITH Jamie Noon among the four backs who are injured, Mathew Tait switches from full back to outside centre for Newcastle Falcons' Guinness Premiership trip to Harlequins tomorrow.

Noon is ruled out by the shin injury he suffered at Leeds last week, when his replacement, Alex Tait, tore a hamstring seven minutes later.

With utility back Joe Shaw also on the casualty list, Tom May reverts to full back with Ollie Phillips on the wing and Tim Visser providing cover on the bench.

Scrum half Lee Dickson picked up a thigh injury at Leeds, so Hall Charlton has an unexpected chance to prove he can still perform at Premiership level following his spell with Blaydon.

The only change to the pack is in the back row, where Andy Buist comes in at blind side withcaptain Phil Dowson switching to No.8 as Russell Winter is injured.

Geoff Parling is on the bench after recovering from knee trouble.

After conceding the fastest try in Premiership history at Leeds last week, acting boss Steve Bates said: "It was the worst start you could imagine, and it's fair to say we've been practising a lot of kick-off receipts this week.

"Having said that, it was about as much of a freak try as you are ever likely to see with the way the wind caught the ball and how it bounced straight into the guy's arms.

"The pleasing aspect was how well the boys rallied for the remaining 39 minutes of the half and put themselves in an excellent position to take the game with the wind at their backs.

What the players needed to do in that second half was stick to the game plan we had talked about rather than playing the way we did after half-time, and we have been working on that all this week in training."

Newcastle Falcons: Tom May, Ollie Phillips, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood, John Rudd, Jonny Wilkinson, Hall Charlton, Micky Ward, Rob Vickers, Carl Hayman, Andy Perry, Mark Sorenson, Andy Buist, Ben Woods, Phil Dowson (capt) ■ The Barnard Castle School trio of Rory Clegg, Tom Catterick and Alex Gray all scored tries as England Under-18s thrashed Italy 78-8 in their opening match in the Six Nations Festival in Cork.

They all started on the bench, but fly half Clegg was on for five minutes as a blood replacement in the first half, then returned after 57 minutes and kicked four conversions. Catterick went on at full back for the second half, while Gray was at No 8.

England next face France at Cork Institute of Technology on Sunday.

■ Newcastle Falcons have sold all their seats for the European Challenge Cup quarter-final against French side Castres at Kingston Park next Saturday.

The club are aiming to beat their European home crowd record of 7,426, set for the 39-0 defeat of Connacht in December, and the North Terrace will be open to cope with demand.

Standing tickets still remain on sale at £15 for adults and £10 for concessions and juniors in advance of match day.

Fewer than 100 seats remain on sale for the Guinness Premiership visit of Leicester Tigers to Kingston Park on Sunday, May 4.

■ Four North East clubs are to receive a total of £830,000 from the Rugby Football Foundation, a charitable trust established by the RFU to provide funding for capital projects to support the recruitment and retention of players.

The cash will enable Morpeth to spend £365,000 on new changing rooms, the funding coming from a partnership comprising the Rugby Football Foundation, Sport England, Castle Morpeth Council and club funds.

A similar project at Blyth will benefit to the tune of £362,000, while at Seaton Carew the accent will be on an improved playing surface, with nearly £93,000 being spent on the two pitches.

Percy Park are to receive a £6,000 grant for car park resurfacing and security lighting.

■ Stockton include one of their star products of recent years, Scott Powell, at No 8 for tomorrow's visit of Gosforth.

After playing for Harrogate he spent time in Australia, but his return enables Phil Austen to move forward to form a new second row pairing with skipper Mark Skirving, who is fit after a month out with a knee ligament injury.

Flanker Chris Driver returns at open side for Anthony Parkinson, Dan Muirhead reverts to hooker, and Owain Jenkins regains the scrum half slot from Paul Armstrong. Andy Bare comes in at full back as Tom Jeffery has suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury.