NEWCASTLE FALCONS might have used the early rounds of the European Challenge Cup to introduce some of their younger players into the first-team fold, but with the competition now at the quarter-final stage, the club’s stance has shifted.

Falcons take on Exeter Chiefs for a place in the semi-finals tomorrow night, and director of rugby Dean Richards has pointedly refused to tinker too much with the team that has suffered narrow defeats to Leicester and London Irish in the last two Aviva Premiership fixtures.

Juan Pablo Socino and Chris Harris come into the side that suffered a one-point reverse to Irish last weekend, replacing the ineligible Gonzalo Tiesi and the demoted Noah Cato respectively, but the wholesale changes that were apparent for European matches before Christmas are conspicuously absent.

There have been undoubted steps forward this season, but for all the sense of progress, Falcons still find themselves 11th in the Premiership table and seemingly destined for a bottom two finish. Make the final of a European trophy, however, and it will be easier to describe the campaign as an unqualified success.

“I wouldn’t say Europe is a distraction because everyone is buzzing for it,” said Harris, who is rewarded with a place in the starting line-up after scoring one try and setting up another during his appearance from the replacements’ bench last weekend.

“We are in a quarter-final and the potential is there for us to win a competition. We are just looking forward to it rather than thinking it is a sideshow from the Premiership.”

Harris is one of the players to have benefited most from Richards’ use of experimental line-ups in the early stages of this season’s Challenge Cup.

The Cumbrian winger, who was formerly with Tynedale, has scored three tries in the competition so far, and his emergence as an integral part of the senior set-up owes much to his powerful impact on the continental stage.

He has suffered something of an injury-hit campaign, but following a return to fitness last month, is viewing the Challenge Cup as a way to ensure the season finishes with a bang.

“Europe has been useful for some of the boys who have not had as much of an involvement in the league competition,” he said. “They have stepped up well for the most part.

“I have had a couple of recent injuries since we lost at home against Newport Gwent Dragons in January. I did my shoulder and was out for a few weeks, then my knee swelled up when I was at Rotherham and I had another little lay off.

“It was a bit frustrating from that point of view, but it was great to get back last week and to now have this chance in Europe.”

Newcastle Falcons: Tait, Harris, Powell, Socino, Sinoti, Catterick, Tipuna; Vickers, Lawson, Brookes, Barrow, Thompson, R Mayhew, Welch, M Wilson.

Replacements: McGuigan, Fry, Orlandi, Green, Temm, Takulua, Clegg, Hammersley.