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| Falcons change two for Wasps trip |
| 29 November 2007, 1:29 pm |
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| Newcastle Falcons welcome back Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood to their starting XV for Saturday's do-or-die EDF Energy Cup clash at London Wasps, with All Black prop Carl Hayman set to make his debut from the bench. |
The winner of Saturday's match will book their spot in the semi-finals of the competition, to be played at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday March 22.
In all the Falcons have made two personnel changes and two positional switches from the side which faced Wasps in Guinness Premiership action last weekend.
All the changes come in the backs as the Falcons keep the same forward pack - the return of Wilkinson and Flood seeing a back line reshuffle as Ollie Phillips and Steve Jones drop out of the match-day 22.
Wilkinson lines up at fly half with Flood at inside centre, while Jamie Noon switches to outside centre as Mathew Tait drops to fullback and Tom May moves up to the right wing.
Speaking ahead of the second meeting of these two sides in the space of a week, Falcons coaching and technical director of Steve Bates said: "What we learnt from last weekend's league match is that Wasps are a very good side, but they are beatable.
"What we need to do now is be more consistent in terms of our own performance level and with our own personal skills, because for the spells of the game when we got in to our shapes we looked like causing them problems.
"Where we went wrong was in making a number of personal errors, and we handed them some easy tries which, under normal circumstances, we would expect to have prevented. We put them under pressure in certain areas of the game, scored two very good tries, and if we'd kept the ball for longer it would have been a very close scoreline.
"The issues that went wrong last weekend are fairly straightforward ones to address, so we have been working hard this week on those areas and it will be a different game this weekend."
Welcoming back Wilkinson and Flood to the team, Bates said: "The selection for this match, especially in the backs, gets people in to positions where they feel most comfortable.
"The players who drop out of the side for this game have done well this season, but adding Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood to any team is obviously going to add a lot of edge to our play.
"Switching Tom May back to the wing gives us a chance to see him in the position where he started the season on fire with a number of tries, and we will possibly see the best of him in attack because that role allows him to pop up more in the positions where he is a scoring threat.
"Moving Mathew Tait to fullback gives us a bit more balance with his pace and his kicking game, which is very underrated by some people outside of this club, and I'm just looking forward to seeing this side in operation.
"Cup rugby is always a very exciting proposition, and with the semi-finals being at the Millennium Stadium it's now a chance for us to be involved in a huge occasion and a potential entry route in to the Heineken Cup."
Newcastle Falcons team to face London Wasps:
15 Mathew Tait
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon
12 Toby Flood
11 John Rudd
10 Jonny Wilkinson
9 James Grindal
1 Jon Golding
2 Matt Thompson
3 David Wilson
4 Andy Perry
5 Mark Sorenson
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Phil Dowson (captain)
Replacements:
Andy Long
Joe McDonnell
Carl Hayman
Sean Tomes
Brent Wilson
Lee Dickson
Tim Visser
Not considered due to injury: Matthew Burke (knee), Ross Beattie (shoulder), James Hoyle (hip), Andy Buist (shoulder). |
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