That came in Newcastle in October 2003 during the World Cup, when a Tom May hat-trick inspired the home side to a 42-22 win, whilst last season’s fixture ended in a draw after we made a stunning second half fightback from 6-22 down to lead 27-22, but only a missed conversion gave us a share of the points.

 

In November of this season we made the long trip to the West Country without Colin Charvis and Jamie Noon (despite England not playing until a week later), both on international duty, and were downed 27-20, despite Cory Harris’ try giving us the lead.  Robbie Morris’ yellow card didn’t help, as we were overrun by a strong Cherry and White side.  The teams at Kingsholm that day were:

 

Gloucester: O Morgan, M Foster, J Simpson-Daniel, A Allen (T Fanolua, 60), R Thirlby, L Mercier 1C 5P (B Davies, 38-40), H Thomas (P Richards, 53, 1T), P Collazo, J Parkers (R Elloway, 75), T Sigley (G Powell, 45), Q Davids (M Cornwell, 60), A Eustace, P Buxton © (A Balding, 42-47), A Hazell, J Forrester 1T (A Balding, 53).

 

Newcastle: M Burke, T May (J Shaw, 62-70), M Tait, T Flood, J Hoyle, J Wilkinson © 2P 2C 1T, J Grindal, M Ward, M Thompson, R Morris (T Paoletti, 73), L Gross (J Smithson, 58), A Buist, M McCarthy (T Paoletti, 37-44), C Harris 1T, O Finegan.

 

Gloucester, like us, haven’t been affected too much by the Six Nations, with only Mefin Davies (Wales), Mike Tindall and James Simpson-Daniel (both England) having made matchday squads in the tournament.  Alex Brown , James Forrester and Peter Richards are all in the wider England squad however.

 

Other internationals in the Gloucester squad, include Phil Vickery (out with another operation), Andy Hazell and Henry Paul (all for England), France’s Patrice Collazo and Rob Andrew’s old friend Olivier Azam (he of the racism accusations), and Kingsholm legend, Samoan centre Terry Fanolua, as well as South African Quinton Davids.  Both of their main fly-halves, Ludovic Mercier and Duncan McRae, are A internationals with France and Australia respectively.

 

Our opponents on Sunday have a thriving set of young players, full of pace, enthusiasm and skill.  Those in the backs include lightning winger Marcel Garvey, Anthony Allen (whose first Premiership start came against us in November), Olly Morgan (out for another four weeks with an ankle injury), and wings James Bailey and Mark Foster.

 

Not to be outdone, Gloucester’s pack boasts up-and-coming talents such as England A prop Nick Wood, lock Jonathan Pendlebury, flanker James Merriman (first start last week against Leicester) and back rower Luke Narraway whose late try sealed a draw at KP last season.  These players are guided by the wily experience of Jake Boer, Premiership player of the year in 2002/03.

 

Form wise, Gloucester walked their European group against Toulon, Bayonne and Bucharest to qualify as top seeds, and in the quarter-final our group opponents Brive will visit Kingsholm.  In the Premiership their last two matches were at home, a 9-13 defeat to London Irish before beating Leicester 34-19 last Friday.  Away form has been patchy, with Bristol being beaten at the Memorial Ground in both the Premiership and Powergen Cup, and Gloucester also beat Saracens 19-9 in Watford in their last away league game in January.

 

All that means that the men in cherry and white sit third on 40 points, two ahead of Leicester and five behind Wasps, as they seek the best playoff spot possible.

 

Recent player news in the South-West has included new contracts for Simpson-Daniel, Bailey, Wood, Foster and also full-back Jon Goodridge and captain Adam Balding.  Amongst the injured who we will not have to face on Sunday are the aforementioned Vickery, Morgan, and Olivier Azam who has a shoulder problem.

 

Turning to the Falcons, Sunday’s good win at London Irish means we are now in a run of one defeat in ELEVEN games, with every chance of continuing that run this weekend with an almost full squad to choose from.  Jonny Wilkinson should be at least on the bench and Mathew Tait, David Wilson, James Hoyle and Ollie Phillips will be back from junior international commitments.

 

The match in Reading saw comebacks from injury for Mark Mayerhofler, Matthew Burke and Cory Harris, although Toby Flood will probably miss out again and we await news on Stuart Grimes, who dropped out of the team late for Irish.

 

It remains to be seen whether Rob Andrew will reverse his policy of not selecting players during the 6 Nations even on free weekends, and if so we will have Colin Charvis and Jamie Noon back in the side.

 

Which has raised an interesting point in my mind over the last few days.  Andy Robinson said before the Six Nations started that he thought it was crazy that the England squad were playing for their clubs a week before England played Wales.  For example, how could Sale and Leicester’s England players beat the heck out of each other one week and then play together the next?

 

Well, Charva and Noon apparently beat the heck out of each other at Twickenham two weeks ago, and we may be expecting them to play together this weekend.  But nobody hears the clubs complaining.

 

To end on an anoraky note, here is our record against Gloucester in the North:

 

12/3/77         North Road              Cup QF          W3-0

10/2/90         Gateshead               Cup R4 L15-26

28/11/92       Kingston Park           Cup R3 W13-10

18/9/93         Kingston Park           Division 1       D12-12

14/12/97       Kingston Park           Premiership 1  W37-27

25/4/99         Kingston Park           Premiership 1  W39-15

30/4/00         Kingston Park           Premiership 1  W36-28

6/9/00          Kingston Park          Premiership    L18-19

18/11/01       Kingston Park           Premiership    W18-16

15/9/02         Kingston Park           Premiership    L19-22

5/10/03         Kingston Park           Premiership    W42-22

27/2/05         Kingston Park           Premiership    D27-27

 

The Falcons side:-

 

15 Matthew Burke

14 Tom May

13 Mathew Tait

12 Jamie Noon

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 Cory Harris

8 Colin Charvis (captain)

 

Replacements:

 

David Wilson

Andy Long

Luke Gross

Ben Woods

James Grindal

Toby Flood

Joe Shaw

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