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| Falcons Team To Face Bath |
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| Brent Wilson comes in to the side at blindside flanker |
| 6 March 2008, 11:48 am |
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| Newcastle Falcons have named their team for Saturday's Guinness Premiership trip to Bath (kick-off 1pm). |
Director of rugby John Fletcher makes three changes from the team which ran league leaders Gloucester all the way two weeks ago at Kingsholm.
Two of those are injury enforced as Andy Perry (ribs) and Andy Long (hand) both drop out, with Brent Wilson and Matt Thompson coming in to the side respectively.
The only other change comes at loose head prop, where England Saxon Jon Golding takes the starting spot as All Black Joe McDonnell lies in wait on the bench.
Having seen the postponement of last Friday’s match with London Wasps due to severe winds at Kingston Park, Fletcher said: “It was very frustrating not to play last Friday in front of a full house, but we understand the circumstances and what it does mean is that the boys are nice and fresh going in to this weekend.
“They are mad keen to play, and they are itching to get stuck in to Bath. You can see it in training every day because it’s been getting a bit feisty, and hopefully that will translate in to a big performance down at The Rec.”
Having pushed league leaders Gloucester to the very last minute a fortnight ago, Fletcher said: “We feel like we’re in reasonable shape, parts of the performance down two weeks ago were very good, some not so, but we want to build on that game and incorporate some of the things we have been working on in training.
“Bath are an excellent side who are quite rightly up in the top reaches of the league, so it is a big ask this weekend but one that we are looking forward to immensely.
“They have a few guys out injured and away on international duty, but that is pretty standard at this time of year and most clubs are in the same position so nobody can use that as an excuse.
“We’re going down there to win, we want to have a go at them and there was enough in the Gloucester performance to suggest that we are capable of doing that. We need some wins, we need to be pushing up this table to fulfil our goal of Heineken Cup qualification and this game is vital in that mission.
“It’s just about us turning up, doing what we say we’re going to do and working as hard as we can. If we can do that then we have a massive belief in the quality of our squad to get the job done, and we’re going down there confident that we can beat what is a very good Bath team.”
Assessing the quality of Saturday’s opponents, Fletcher added: “They have developed their game considerably under Steve Meehan, they attack from all areas and beat us pretty comprehensively up in Newcastle earlier in the season, so we know what we are up against.
“The forecast is for rain Friday and Saturday, and we know from past experience that The Rec isn’t necessarily the best-draining of pitches, so that could be a factor and we’ll just have to adapt our game plan to the conditions.”
Newcastle Falcons team to face Bath:
15 Tom May
14 Ollie Phillips
13 Tom Dillon
12 Alex Tait
11 John Rudd
10 Steve Jones
9 Lee Dickson
1 Jon Golding
2 Matt Thompson
3 Carl Hayman
4 Geoff Parling
5 Mark Sorenson
6 Brent Wilson
7 Ben Woods
8 Phil Dowson (captain)
Replacements:
16 Rob Vickers
17 Joe McDonnell
18 Tim Swinson
19 Russell Winter
20 James Grindal
21 Joe Shaw
22 Tim Visser
Not considered due to injury: Matthew Burke (knee), Andy Buist (shoulder), James Hoyle (hip), Sean Tomes (neck), Andy Perry (ribs), Andy Long (hand). |
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