DEAN RICHARDS is hoping Vereniki Goneva’s try-scoring prowess will prove crucial when Newcastle Falcons host Northampton Saints on Sunday afternoon.

Goneva scored a match-winning interception try when Falcons claimed a 22-16 win over Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens in November, and was at it again last weekend when he claimed a hat-trick of tries in his side’s 26-24 defeat at Sale Sharks.

Two of those scores came from interceptions, and with Sunday’s game likely to be another open, free-flowing affair, Richards is hoping the Fijian winger will once again prove influential.

“He’s on fire at the moment,” said the Falcons director of rugby. “He has a habit of scoring tries – three last week, one against them earlier in the year.

“They’ll look at Niki, they’ll look at the rest of the backline and be on guard, but their pack is something to be worried about. They certainly work hard, they’re abrasive and are very direct as well.

“We know what’s coming, it’s just we’ve got to prepare for it and deal with it. They fight for every point they get. They will have been disappointed by the game down there, and they will try to reverse that.”

Richards has made four changes to the side that lost at Sale, with Sinoti Sinoti returning for his first Aviva Premiership appearance in more than three months.

Sinoti has recovered from the knee injury sustained in November’s game with Exeter Chiefs, and lines up on the opposite wing to Goneva. Nili Latu makes his first Premiership start of the season, having come off the bench last weekend, while hooker Kyle Cooper also makes his first league start following his move from South African Super Rugby side, the Sharks.

The final change comes at outside centre, with Dominic Waldouck replacing Chris Harris, and Richards continues to target a place in the top six despite last weekend’s setback at Sale.

“I’ve never looked at anything other than that (the top six) for the last four years,” he said. “So in that respect nothing has changed at all. It’s just that the results have started to go our way.

“Every year we’ve shown improvements, but for a lot of people they haven’t quite seen the amount of improvement until all of a sudden you start overtaking people, which is what we’ve done this season. When you do start overtaking them in terms of league position and you start getting more wins than people thought you would get, people do look at you as top-six contenders.

“I’ve always felt we should be, and that’s always been the goal, but you’ve still got to go out and do it.”

Newcastle: Tait, Goneva, Waldouck, Socino, Sinoti, Hodgson, Takulua; Vickers, Cooper, Welsh, Green, Robinson, M Wilson, Welch, Latu.

Replacements: Lawson, Harris, S Wilson, Fonua, Olmstead, Egerton, Delany, Harris.