WHILE Newcastle Falcons will unleash Scotland flanker Andy Mower at home to Wasps tomorrow, the visitors have had to abandon similar plans for Lawrence Dallaglio.

It was hoped the former England captain would be ready to make his comeback after knee surgery, but he has suffered a setback in training.

Mower broke a hand shortly after playing for Scotland in the autumn internationals and has not been named in the squad for next week's Calcutta Cup clash.

He could still force his way back in for later Six Nations games, and the Falcons will be happy to benefit as he sets out to prove a point to the national selectors in tomorrow's match, which kicks off at 1pm as it is being televised by Sky.

"It will be great to have Andy coming back fresh at this stage of the season," said Director of Rugby Rob Andrew. "He could probably have played at Leeds last Sunday, but we decided to give him another week to be absolutely sure.

"By Sunday night we could be in the cup semi-finals and second in the Premiership. Traditionally our games against Wasps are very close, but we have to win games like this to make sure we qualify for the play-offs.

"Our aim is to get to Twickenham twice this season - for the Powergen Cup final and the Zurich play-off final."

Andrew will resist any temptation to rest Jonny Wilkinson ahead of the Six Nations, especially as it took his seven penalties and injury time drop goal to secure a 24-22 win against Wasps in the fifth round of the cup.

There is also a doubt about his deputy at fly half, David Walder, who ended the cup win at Leeds on Sunday limping with a heavily-strapped ankle. If he is ruled out David Richardson will play at full back.

Prop George Graham is back in the Scotland squad at the age of 36, even though he has rarely started for the Falcons this season with Marius Hurter, Micky Ward and Ian Peel all ahead of him.

In National Division Three North, Darlington Mowden Park entertain New Brighton today, hoping to avenge a 21-20 away defeat which resulted from a controversial injury time try.

After sitting on the bench last week, props Ian Keeligan and Danny Brown will start, with James Isaacson and Dave Sinclair taking their turn as replacements.

Ian James came through well last week on his return after a shoulder injury and retains his place at lock at the expense of Steve Sanderson.

As he will be 39 this year and has increasing commitments, this could prove to be Sanderson's last season.

Skipper Mick Kent returns in place of Mark Wilkinson, who suffered a fractured cheekbone at Dudley last week and will be out for three to six weeks.

Richard Woollam, who played well when he came off the bench at Dudley, will start at scrum half with Jonny Golightly among the replacements.

Darlington give Michael Thompson his North Division One debut at Bradford and Bingley as Rob Stewart has not recovered from the thigh strain he aggravated against Chester two weeks ago.

It was hoped David Andrew might be fit to return by now, but he has yet to do any contact work after breaking his arm in the first match of the season.

Otherwise Darlington are unchanged other than having former Stockton back row man Ian Todd on the bench in place of John Whitehouse, who is to be given the chance of a full game in the seconds.

Stockton are without skipper and coach Alan Brown for the visit of Goole in North Two East because of a recurrence of his groin injury.

Fellow back row man Brett Wildridge is also missing after fracturing his jaw last week.

Lee Richardson returns at fly half in place of Nicki Walters, who has a knee injury.

* Newcastle duo Michael Stephenson and Jamie Noon are in the England Sevens squad to visit Brisbane and Auckland.

The two competitions form the latest legs in the IRB World Sevens series, which England are using as preparation for the Commonwealth Games event in Manchester later this year.

The 13-man squad leave next weekend.