By Leipziger
February 21 2008

The Falcons play their first match on an international weekend during this 6 Nations, missing all four key England backs and going to somewhere it’s not very easy to win – Gloucester. The last time we won there was of course 1998 with a 27-29 result, and a few months ago we came close but had to settle for a draw.

With Steve Jones in the centre and Toby Flood back in the team after the World Cup, the Falcons put in an incredible performance at Kingsholm in the LW Friendly Cup, leading into the last stages of the game before two James Simpson-Daniel tries secured a 18-18 draw for the Cherry n Whites.  How different it could have been had Tom May picked up the ball on the line instead of knocking on…

 

Gloucester are of course suffering themselves from international-related absences, with Iain Balshaw (incredibly) and Leslie Vainikolo in the England side, where they’d likely have been joined by Mike Tindall had he not been injured at Twickenham three weeks ago, that meets France in Paris.

 

Gareth Delve and Marco Bortolami are on the respective benches for Wales v Italy, whilst Chris Paterson and Alasdair Strokosch are wearing the Scotland at Croke Park.

 

Cheers to Touchy for finding the link to the at-a-glance teams.

 

Gloucester were unbeaten at Kingsholm until two weeks ago when Leicester were victorious there 13-20 thanks to an Ayoola Erinle try after 67 minutes to go with Ollie Smith’s first half effort.  Our friend Olivier Azam’s score just after half time and kicks from Willie Walker were all the hosts could come up with as the Tigers avenged a home defeat in October.

 

So far Worcester, Sale, Harlequins, Bristol and Wasps have been put to the sword in Gloucester as well as Bourgoin, Ulster and the Ospreys in Europe.

 

However, away from home Gloucester lost their last game at Bristol 29-26 on Sunday, despite out-scoring the hosts on tries 3-2 and Walker kicking two late penalties.  Former England internationals Simpson-Daniel and Anthony Allen both crossed the line in the south-west derby.

 

Having topped the league twice in recent seasons, including last year, only to lose in the Final (although they did win the Zurich Championship in 2002), our hosts are looking good this year too with 43 points, a lead of two over Leicester who beat them at Twickenham last May.

 

As such, Dean Ryan has assembled a squad packed with internationals, including Wales and Scotland scrum-halves Gareth Cooper and Rory Lawson and former Leicester star Leon Lloyd in the backs, whilst an all-French front-row could be fielded of Azam between Christian Califano, with 70 caps, and one-cap wonder Patrice Collazo.  These vie for places with the high-potential Nick Wood and England’s Andy Titterell, as well as Italy’s Argentinian Carlos Nieto.

 

Further back in the scrum, Andy Hazell, James Forrester and Alex Brown have all worn the England shirt although their international careers appear unlikely to be resurrected at present.

With our England players away, the midfield has an unfamiliar look to it with Alex Tait making his Premiership debut and Tom Dillon and Steve Jones in for their first games in months.  Joe McDonnell and Carl Hayman play together in the league for the first time in an almost first choice pack which we have to hope is strong, with Gloucester’s forwards not in great form.

 

15 Tom May
14 Ollie Phillips
13 Tom Dillon
12 Alex Tait
11 John Rudd
10 Steve Jones
9 Lee Dickson

1 Joe McDonnell
2 Matt Thompson
3 Carl Hayman
4 Andy Perry
5 Mark Sorenson
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Phil Dowson (captain)

Replacements:
16 Andy Long
17 David Wilson
18 Tim Swinson
19 Brent Wilson
20 James Grindal
21 Joe Shaw
22 Tim Visser