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| Falcons Gear Up For Twickenham |
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| The Falcons celebrate last year's Middlesex Sevens victory |
| 11 August 2008, 10:31 am |
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| Newcastle Falcons launches the defence of its Middlesex Sevens title this Saturday at Twickenham, retaining six of last year's victorious squad. |
Captain Scott Riddell, Paddy Dias, Micky Young, Luke Fielden, Ollie Phillips and Ross Batty all formed part of the team which helped the Falcons win the competition last season.
England rugby league international Danny Williams is included having made his union debut last weekend against Western Force, while winger Andrew Fenby will hope to continue his prolific scoring streak after touching down nine tries in two games for the Falcons Development Team.
England Under-20s Grand Slam winner and World Cup finalist fly half Rob Miller makes his Middlesex Sevens debut, while England Saxons wing John Rudd also forms part of the group.
Newcastle faces Northampton Saints in round one of the televised tournament, with assistant coach Ed Midcalf stating: “It's always harder to retain a title than it is to win it first time round, but the boys have been working extremely hard in training.
“This group has played a lot of Sevens tournaments together, but with a new knock-out format and the inclusion of the British Army and the two Welsh sides, we know we will have to produce another massive effort to win the competition for the second year in succession.
“There looks like being a very strong field this year with a lot of good Sevens sides, notably the British Army, who have been extremely impressive in the tournaments we have seen them in during the past month or so. But we are not looking past our round one match against Northampton, as we look to build another strong challenge for the trophy.”
Newcastle Falcons squad for the Middlesex Sevens:
1 John Rudd
2 Scott Riddell (captain)
3 Paddy Dias
4 Micky Young
5 Luke Fielden
6 Andrew Fenby
7 Ollie Phillips (player-coach)
8 Ross Batty
9 Ross Samson
10 Rob Miller
11 Danny Williams
12 Aaron Myers
Player-coach: Ollie Phillips
Assistant coach: Ed Midcalf
Team manager: Ian Smith |
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