The match statistics, between these two clubs, show that this is a real possibility. When the two sides met in the Premiership last season Harlequins were the victors both home and away, winning 3 -14 in a hard fought match on a damp November Friday evening, screened on Sky, and watched by many Quins supporters in the Cabbage Patch. The start of 2007 began on a real high with a comprehensive 42 -15 demolition at The Stoop, on New Years Day with our golden winger David Strettle scoring a marvellous hat trick of tries. We have every reason to be positive about this weekend’s game, in their last six Premiership meetings, Harlequins have one five of the six matches; the match that Quins lost was by just 1 point. It should be noted, however, that Newcastle have only lost once in their last eleven matches at Kingston Park, and that was on the final day of the 2006-2007 season against Bath.

Unbeaten, and with maximum points Harlequins currently lie in second place. They are just behind Gloucester Rugby, who share the same Premiership points’ total, and point difference, but are top by virtue of scoring more tries.

Despite four of the first team squad being away on World Cup duty, Quins have put together a dream start to their 2007-08 season. Last weekend, in their England shirts 8-9 axis of Easter and Gomarsall worked well and was even praised by Stuart Barnes. At the Twickenham the opening day and again last weekend at the The Stoop the Quins 8-9 axis of Guest and Care/Keogh worked equally well, with Guest, sprinting out of his “arm chair” taking superb offload and sprinting to the line for fine try against Leeds. Keogh, who had earlier moved to the wing, when Fulton replaced Amesbury, also got his name on the score sheet. I’m not aware of any selection issues due to injuries after the Leeds match, so I’m expecting to see the same team sheet as last week, but with a couple of name changes, with Fulton starting and Keogh on the wing in place of Amesbury who’ll drop to the bench.

Planning this preview last Sunday evening, after witnessing two fine wins, and prior to reading his match report I have been thinking along the same lines as the King Of Mediocrity as he wrote;

“One point to remember is that our currently unavailable squad players include, in no particular order, De Wet Barry, Gary Botha, Andy Gomarsall, Nick Easter, Steve So’oialo, Tani Fuga, Chris Hala’ufia, Stuart Abbott, Ugo Monye and David Strettle, most of whom would usually be in consideration for the match-day 22. How the squad is managed over the next few months will be very telling”. As was reported in the Sunday press Richards said "If we continue with the performances we are showing, we might get somewhere this year, but we are going to give a lot of people a run for their money” and I believe that will continue this Saturday in Newcastle. The future is certainly looking bright.

With the World Cup now over for Samoa, both Fuga and So’oialo are likely to have returned to Harlequins by this weekend. With neither player injured, it is expected that they will be available for selection for our home match against Bristol. England’s fate in the World Cup has yet to be decided, but with the return Easter and Gomarsall, with Care & Strettle targeting the away game at Bath and Abbott getting back to fitness there are going to be some nice selection headaches for Dean Richards, despite having the smallest squad in the Premiership.

Malone has simply been inspirational in our first two games with the way he has controlled the game. Last Saturday against Leeds, he simply continued in the same vein as where he had left off against London Irish the week before. The centre pairing of Jordan-Turner Hall and Hal Luscombe has also worked very well, so it is easy at this stage of the season to agree with Richards when he says “we are comfortable with our squad and the players we have brought in." and this confidence was been reinforced with the statement ”I'm very fond of my squad. I wouldn't change anyone."

Newcastle started the season with a somewhat surprising 33-12 win over Sale Sharks, although hey had beaten Sale at home last season. Last week the Northern Rock sponsored side, shorn of their major assets, found it impossible to open their account against London Irish, and lost the match 19-0, unable to make a deposit across the try line. Irish, whose main sponsor Llanera, are also in financial trouble, were 16-0 up at half time, which suggests that the Newcastle defence finally clicked in the second half but in discussion with a work colleague who was at the match, that this was not the case and both sides were guilty of playing a poor and boring 40 minutes of rugby throughout the second half, and the Newcastle supporters match report agrees that “little of note happened in the second half apart from Dillon’s yellow card and the resulting penalty kicked by Staunton..”

Newcastle are in sixth position in the Premiership, and after last weeks result their major Australian Signing Carl Haymans who is expected towards the end of November, cannot arrive soon enough. The Falcons must also be anxiously awaiting the return of their players from England duty

Support for Harlequins at Kingston Park is likely to be very small indeed, and there is more than a whiff of a conspiracy theory to prevent any away support turning up. Those supporters who didn’t go to Paris for the England v Tonga game have found that the six o’clock kick off time, ensures the need for an over night stay, but with the Great North Run in Newcastle on Sunday, hotel accommodation is at a premium. Those who have successfully negotiated that hurdle have since discovered that GNER have weekend engineering work on the railways, in the Newcastle area which will cause delays and cancellations. It looks like we will need to borrow a jet from our sponsor Etihad Airways. Why are away matches at all three Northern Premiership clubs always so challenging to get to, what is wrong with a 3pm kick off on a Saturday afternoon?

With the Harlequins team putting in two good performances there is little reason to doubt that a third victory will follow this week as the Falcons are tamed.

Prediction, The Northerners to be rocked again, but that bonus point could prove to be elusive.

This week’s match referee is Martin Fox.

You’ve not seen nothing like the Mighty Quins!

This weekend fixtures are:

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