Great Scot

It was in December 2002 that we last met Bristol as the south-westerners won 20-12 at Kingston Park to leave us rooted to the bottom of the table, a position Bristol themselves would occupy at the end of the season and thus become the first team (Rotherham were the second) to be relegated twice from the Premiership.  Liam Botham scored all of our points with four penalties.

 

In total we have met six times in competitive matches at KP, Newcastle winning four (including a Cup tie in November 2000) and Bristol two (the other being in September 1999, ominously also our first home game of that season).

 

Since being promoted in May, Bristol have built on one of the strongest squads Division 1 has ever seen in order to compete in the top flight.  The return of Mark Regan and the signings of Gareth Llewellyn and Brian Lima are backed up by ex-Bath duo Ross Blake and Sam Cox, Worcester’s Tommy Hayes and former Wasps centre Mark Denney.  Quality players surviving Bristol stay in the National League include Saul Nelson, Matt Salter and Darren Crompton.

 

In their first league match this year in front of 12,000 at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol defeated arch-enemies and Premiership dark horses Bath 19-14 thanks to a Lee Robinson try converted by Jason Strange, who also kicked two penalties.  Thus, the new boys will be no pushovers and will be looking to improve on their good start to 2005/06.

 

We lost our opening match at Sale of course, however there were encouraging debuts from Andy Perry, Tino Paoletti and particularly double try-scorer Anthony Elliott.  But if we put in a similar performance to that which nearly turned over the Sharks, with a strong defence and a clinical attack, then we should be able to score our first win of the season this Sunday and get set for the winter ahead.

 

The teams, as announced on Thursday, are:-

 

Falcons

15 Matthew Burke

14 Tom May

13 Jamie Noon

12 Mark Mayerhofler

11 Anthony Elliott

10 Dave Walder

9 Hall Charlton

 

1 Micky Ward

2 Matt Thompson

3 Robbie Morris

4 Andy Perry

5 Stuart Grimes

6 Mike McCarthy

7 Colin Charvis (captain)

8 Phil Dowson

 

Replacements:

16 Tino Paoletti

17 Andy Long

18 Ian Peel

19 Owen Finegan

20 Geoff Parling

21 James Grindal

22 Jonny Wilkinson

 

Bristol

15 Bernardo Stortoni

14 Lee Robinson

13 Rob Higgitt

12 Manu Contepomi

11 Vaughan Going

10 Jason Strange

9 Shaun Perry

 

1 Dave Hilton

2 Mark Regan

3 Darren Crompton

4 Mariano Sambucetti

5 Gareth Llewellyn

6 Matt Salter (captain)

7 Craig Short

8 Geraint Lewis

 
Replacements:
Alex Clarke

Saul Nelson

Roy Winters

Dan Ward-Smith

Greg Nicholls

Danny Gray

Mark Denney

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