England men back for Falcons

9:04am Friday 21st March 2008

NEWCASTLE Falcons welcome back their England quartet for tonights Guinness Premiership trip to Leeds Carnegie (7pm).

Jonny Wilkinson, Toby Flood Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait return from Six Nations duty, while there is a first Guinness Premiership start for 26-year-old hooker Rob Vickers.

With Andy Long only just recovered from a hand injury, Vickers relegates Matt Thompson to the bench, where he will be joined by the fit-again forward trio of Jon Golding, Brent Wilson and Andy Buist.

Micky Ward returns at loose head as Joe McDonnell and David Wilson are both injured.

The Falcons are entrenched in third bottom place after their 28- 8 home defeat in their first outing under Steve Bates, but he is expecting much better tonight against a club heading for an immediate return to National One.

It was a disappointing performance in a lot of areas against Bristol, said Bates. The line-out was poor and we turned over far too much ball.

It wasnt due to a lack of commitment, it was simply a case of a couple of key areas of our game malfunctioning badly, and we have been working hard at putting that right.

On his decision to select Vickers, Bates said: Clearly throwing into the line-out is an important part of our strategy to maintain possession. But there were also instances of poor lifting, poor timing and poor decoy movements.

Rob has been a real contributor this season in the games where he has appeared from the bench, and he has been outstanding for our Development XV.

He is a different sort of hooker, in that his game revolves more around energy and being lively around the park.

It is important we give him a fair crack at starting so we can have a look at him with a view to next season.

He is a very level-headed character and its just a case of seeing how well he copes with the occasion and the pressures placed upon him.

Both Rob and Micky Ward have been waiting in the wings for some time and this is their chance to show what they can do.

Micky is a tremendous competitor who has been chomping at the bit to get back in the team.

He hasnt let his frustration affect his attitude and he has been a very positive presence.

Despite Leeds being well adrift at the bottom, Bates said: Im sure they will be thinking along the same lines as Bristol C that this is a good time to play Newcastle.

We have some very experienced players coming back for this game, and I think there is now a much greater understanding of what we are trying to achieve as a team.

Leeds have had some very close games at Headingley this season, so we really have to turn up in the right frame of mind.

Newcastle Falcons: Mathew Tait, Tom May, Jamie Noon, Toby Flood, John Rudd, Jonny Wilkinson, Lee Dickson, Micky Ward, Rob Vickers, Carl Hayman, Andy Perry, Mark Sorenson, Phil Dowson (capt), Ben Woods, Russell Winter ö Stockton visit Seaton Carew to play a delayed Durham Junior Cup game tomorrow. Wayne Brown and Chris Driver return to the back row and are joined by Dan Muirhead, allowing Gareth Foulkes to play at hooker.

Konrad Tempest continues to deputise in the second row for injured skipper Mark Skirving, while Tom Jeffery returns at full back after recovering from his shin injury.

Paul Armstrong claims the scrum half berth as Owain Jenkins is unavailable.

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