NEWCASTLE Falcons director of rugby Steve Bates has delayed naming his starting line-up for Saturday’s Guinness Premiership game at Leicester after a flu bug swept through Kingston Park.

Bates, who has been struck by the bug himself, was due to name his starting XV for the Welford Road clash yesterday morning.

But with more than half-adozen senior players having been affected by flu-like symptoms, the Falcons boss will put off naming his side until the Premiership’s cutoff point of tomorrow lunchtime.

“We’ve had to delay selection because we’ve had such a high number of players affected,”

said Bates. “I had it myself over the weekend, so I can sympathise with the players battling through it.

“The bug itself seems to knock you down for about 48 hours, but for two or three days after that you would struggle to play a high-intensity game of rugby.

“A number of guys haven’t trained this week in a bid to try to get through the illness in time for Saturday. Hopefully, we should start to get some of those players back before we leave on Friday morning.

“Under the current Premier Rugby regulations, we have to name a side on Friday before noon, but even having done that, we’ll still be taking plenty of extra bodies in case we have to make late changes on the day of the game.

“I have a good idea of what team I want to field, it’s just a question of seeing how those guys come through the week and how much they have in the tank come Saturday.”

Newcastle can ill afford a reduced-strength line-up as they attempt to secure their first Premiership win for five matches against a Leicester side five places above them in the table.

Back-to-back European Challenge Cup wins over Overmach Parma have lifted morale, but a Leicester lineup likely to include former Falcons fly-half Toby Flood will provide a stern test of Newcastle’s new-found confidence.

“We know we need to step it up a few levels going to a place like Leicester,” admitted Bates. “Welford Road is always a very challenging place to go, but this weekend is about us saying we can be competitive at this level.

“This is a huge fixture for us.

“Leicester will no doubt be confident of a home win, so it’s up to us to go there and surprise them.”