Latest
England men back for Falcons
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.
9:04am Friday 21st March 2008
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
