Certainly, we will never have a better chance, with many pundits tipping Worcester to follow Rotherham and drop straight back to the National League.  However, with quality players such as Thinius Delport, Pat Sanderson, Phil Murphy and our own Ben Gollings, as well as Leeds’ young England scrum-half Clive Stuart-Smith joining the Midlands outfit in the summer, Sunday’s match will by no means be easy.

We, on the other hand give a debut to Wales captain Colin Charvis, with Semo Setiti on the bench and Matt Burke not even making the squad after only arriving in England this week.  Jonny Wilkinson will also make his Premiership return and 2004 bow.

Our warm-up has been acceptable I feel, winning the Plate tournament at the Middlesex Sevens and then two wins against Connacht and the Bees and a very narrow defeat in Munster.  Only now we will see however, whether the team are feeling the benefit of it.

Newcastle and Worcester have only met once before in competitive rugby, in the fifth round of the Tetley’s Bitter Cup on January 25th 1998 at Sixways. We won the match 10-0, with a Dean Ryan try and a conversion and penalty from Rob Andrew, with this team: S Legg, J Naylor, M Shaw, G Childs, V Tuigamala, R Andrew, G Armstrong, N Popplewell, R Nesdale, P Van-Zandvliet, G Archer, R Metcalfe, P Lam, R Arnold, D Ryan. None of this XV still play rugby for us, but Andrew and Nesdale, along with Peter Walton who was a replacement on that day, are all on our backroom staff. 

The first rule of league rugby is "don’t lose your first game".  However, because of our appalling record away from home (14 wins in 68 matches since winning the Championship), it is even more vital that we win at Sixways because it is viewed on paper as our easiest away match of the season.  If we win it won’t be time to celebrate as having added some much-needed steel to our squad there will be further tests ahead (that would come with a result at Bath next week, where we haven’t won in seven years), but a defeat would suggest we are in for another long season.  But I don’t think that will happen.  Strange to say it so early, but we MUST win this Sunday. I think we will.

The team:-

15 Joe Shaw
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon
12 Mark Mayerhofler
11 Michael Stephenson
10 Jonny Wilkinson (joint captain)
9 Hall Charlton

1 Ian Peel (joint captain)
2 Matt Thompson
3 Marius Hurter
4 Luke Gross
5 Stuart Grimes
6 Mike McCarthy
7 Colin Charvis
8 Phil Dowson

Replacements:

16 Micky Ward
17 Andy Long
18 Craig Hamilton
19 Semo Sititi
20 James Grindal
21 Dave Walder
22 Epi Taione

Worcester's team has not been announced as yet.

Getting there:-

There is no parking available at the ground. The text with this reads:-

M5 Junction 7 (Worcester South) and follow AA signs for Park & Ride

M5 Junction 6 (Worcester North) and follow signs for AA Park & Walk at Shire Business Park

Rail:- Worcester Foregate Street - Walk to Crowngate Bus Station for Rugby Special buses

Worcester Shrub Hill - Midland Red buses 41 or 41A, 43 or 43A to Shire Business Park at rear of Sixways

Park & Ride - Single £1.40 Adult, £1 OAP & Child

Return £2.50 Adult, £1.80 OAP & Child

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