Whilst I’ll be working my way through my wedding breakfast, the crowd at Kingston Park will be feasting on the delights served up by two sides that always seem to produce a classic.  If, however, Falcons are as poor as they were during the second half last Sunday, then the fare served up will be more bread and water than banquet.

 

It’s a repeat of the 2004 cup final, which Falcons won 37-33, way back in the days when the national cup was a knockout competition.  Typing this on Friday night, I must admit that I still haven’t convinced myself that involving the Welsh regions is better than the chance of being giantkilled (although any competition that Leicester lose their first match in can’t all be bad!).  It’s probably the fact that the competition now seems to me more like the European competitions, and whilst I enjoy them greatly, I’d rather watch a cup game where if you lose, you’re out – no second chances, no quarter given.

 

I’d also venture another criticism in that the split of matches – two now, and the third in December – is very lop-sided.  Either play the group games back to back (my preference), or play them one per month.  I have visions of teams playing severely understrength sides in that last round if there’s nothing to play for, which will no doubt mean that at least one of the semi-finalists will benefit.  Bring back the knockout format, even if (and I don’t necessarily think it’s the best idea) you have to play ties over two legs to guarantee sides two matches.

 

And I haven’t even started on the split of home and away games…

 

Sale arrive having only been downed by Gloucester in their four games so far, and on the back of a 40-32 victory at Vicarage Road last Sunday.  They’ve rested a few players for this week, but that’s not to say that the team is weak – five internationals start, with the exceptionally gifted Daniel Larrachea starting at flyhalf.  The full team is:-

 

15 Steve Hanley

14 Nick Wakley

13 Elvis Sevalai'I

12 Robert Todd

11 Oriol Ripol

10 Daniel Larrachea

9 Sililo Martens

1 Lionel Faure

2 Andy Titterrell

3 Ben Coutts

4 Christian Day

5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe

6 Peter Anglesea (Captain)

7 John Carter

8 Nathan Bonner Evans

 

Replacements

16 Stuart Turner

17 Barry Stewart

18 Dean Schofield

19 Magnus Lund

20 Ben Foden

21 Valentin Courrent

22 Jason Duffy

 

Falcons, on the other hand, try to put the 42 minutes of hell that was Sunday afternoon from about ten past three onwards by making four changes – the entire front row are swapped over, with Wilson, Thompson and Paoletti coming in, whilst Toby Flood makes a first start of the season in place of Dave Walder, who drops out of the 22 completely.  There’s also first bench places of the season for Luke Gross and Lee Dickson, plus the latest comeback for Jonny Wilkinson, three weeks into a four to six week lay off after having his appendix removed.  The team:-

 

15 Matthew Burke

14 Anthony Elliott

13 Jamie Noon

12 Mark Mayerhofler

11 Mathew Tait

10 Toby Flood

9 Hall Charlton

1 David Wilson

2 Matt Thompson

3 Tino Paoletti

4 Andy Perry

5 Geoff Parling

6 Owen Finegan

7 Cory Harris

8 Colin Charvis (captain)

 

Replacements

16 Micky Ward

17 Andy Long

18 Robbie Morris

19 Luke Gross

20 Ben Woods

21 Lee Dickson

22 Jonny Wilkinson

 

This is a very difficult one to call – as are all Falcons-Sale matches.  With both clubs only having one home match in the competition this season, then the pressure is more on the Falcons to get the win.  That said, a defeat for either side and it will be very difficult to get through the pool, especially as both teams have to go to Stradey Park.  It will be a memorable day.

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