ENGLAND Saxons No 8 Phil Dowson will make his first start for five months in Newcastle Falcons' Guinness Premiership clash at home to Gloucester tonight (8pm).

Dowson replaces Brent Wilson after completing 20 minutes in Sunday's 16-7 victory over Northampton following his recovery from a ruptured bicep tendon.

Lock Andy Perry starts in place of calf injury victim Mark Sorenson and winger John Rudd replaces Tom May, who is joined on the bench by highly-rated prop David Wilson, making a long-awaited return from injury.

With Jonny Wilkinson playing a fourth successive game at fly half, and England duo Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait at centre, it means Toby Flood is again named on the wing.

Director of Rugby John Fletcher believes that Dowson is by no means alone among the younger Falcons players who are pressing for places in the Saxons squad to contest the Churchill Cup this summer.

"We're used to seeing our backs getting picked for England, but a number of our forwards are really putting their hands up," he said.

"Apart from Dowson, I strongly feel Ben Woods should be involved, then Andy Buist, Geoff Parling and John Rudd are pushing their claims.

"There aren't many English hookers playing better than Matt Thompson in the Premiership at the moment, Micky Ward has been very consistent in the last few months and David Wilson is coming back this week. It's about time some of these lads got recognised internationally."

Fletcher insists the Falcons will need no motivating tonight, despite Sunday's win having removed the threat of relegation.

"As a team we never spoke about relegation," he said. "Our goal of winning the last three home games of the season hasn't changed.

"Some of the players looked very nervous last Sunday and went into their shells a bit, but their character shone through in spades.

"Our work rate, defence and collision stuff was immense, and we had a tackle count of over 230, which is the highest I think I've ever seen in any game of rugby. We worked as hard as we've ever worked, and just got the job done.

"If you'd walked into our changing room after the final whistle you would have thought we'd lost. That just goes to show what sort of high standards we're setting ourselves, and hopefully we will see a different level of performance against Gloucester.

"We have an unbeaten home run to maintain, and don't underestimate the pride we've taken in going over five months winning every game at Kingston Park, including beating all four of the Heineken Cup semi-finalists."

Newcastle lost a close contest away to second-placed Gloucester last month and Fletcher added: "It all points to an exciting game between two sides who like to play rugby the right way. It was a cracking match at Kingsholm."

The Falcons will defend their Melrose Sevens title tomorrow with a squad which will deplete Darlington Mowden Park for their home match against Leicester Lions.

Fortunately there is nothing at stake in the National Three North clash as the Falcons are taking last week's Durham Cup final hat-trick hero, flanker Scott Riddell, to Melrose as well as Tim Visser and James Hamer.

They also include two other ex-Mowden men in Ollie Phillips and Ross Batty, plus Tynedale winger Cameron Johnston, which will not please the Three North leaders as they face a tough match at Rugby Lions.

Barnard Castle School's Alex Grey led England to a clean sweep in the Four Nations Under 16s tournament when they beat Italy 23-5 in their final game. His schoolmate Tom Catterick kicked a penalty and conversion before being replaced at fly half during the second half.

In the Under 18s Six Nations Festival in Glasgow, England lost 21-9 to Wales, all their points coming from penalties by Newcastle fly half Rob Miller.

The Under 19s need to beat New Zealand at Ravenhill, Belfast, tonight to reach the semi-finals of their World Championship. Newcastle centre Alex Tait scored a fine individual try in Tuesday's 17-15 win against Argentina.