Welcome back

By Leipziger
November 19 2010

This Sunday sees the resumption of hostilities in the Premiership after the LV= Cup break. The Falcons welcome Gloucester on Sunday looking for a fourth win in five seasons at home to the Shedheads.

In the past two seasons, this fixture has been of immense importance for those with black hearts – in 2009/10 it came on 11^th January, a week after a trouncing at London Irish but a late Tom May penalty secured a first league win since the previous September.

It was the first of six successive victories in the Premiership that saw the Falcons secure survival.

The game was scheduled for the same weekend last season but postponed due to heavy snow. The Cherry 'n' Whites finally came north for a Wednesday night meeting on 31^st March for a game the Falcons needed to win just as much as they had a year previously.

In front of a crowd of just 4,275 at Kingston Park, Tom Biggs scored a first-half try and Jimmy Gopperth kicked six penalties and a conversion to win the game 25-13.

This recent run of decent form against Gloucester comes after a period of six seasons in which we failed to beat our visitors at home outside of international periods. We haven't won at Kingsholm since 1998 however, drawing only once, in a heart-pounding cup game in 2007.

The Premiership table finds Gloucester in third place, although they are seven points behind second-placed Northampton and London Irish who are threatening to run away from the rest of the pack. Similarly, Leeds and ourselves are trying to avoid being cut adrift at the bottom.

Gloucester experienced an indifferent start to the season by losing at Exeter on the opening day, before a tight 22-21 win over Leeds at Kingsholm. A losing bonus point-defeat at London Irish has been followed by four successive wins over Wasps, Bath, Harlequins and most recently Leicester, although of these only Bath failed to get a bonus point. Gloucester may be winning, but in the league at least they are not dominant.

Over the past two weeks Gloucs have been defeated at Newport in the LV= Cup, but remain in contention after last week's home victory over Saracens. The hosts scored five tries through Olivier Azam, James Simpson-Daniel, Charlie Sharples and Henry Trinder (2).

They had a similar start in the Amlin Challenge Cup, losing at Agen and then smashing Rovigo 90-7.

Unlike us, Gloucester will be hit by a couple of international call-ups this weekend. Rory Lawson is missing as he captains Scotland against the Springboks on Saturday afternoon. England lock Dave Attwood will be on the bench at Twickenham where the national side take on Samoa, although Mike Tindall is rested in favour of Matt Banahan.

Bryan Redpath will still have a number of threatening players in his squad, not least Simpson-Daniel, who has been hideously underused by England during his career that has yielded just ten caps despite his scoring over 100 tries for his club.

Wales fly-half Nicky Robinson has taken on kicking duties for this season, although he faces competition from Tim Taylor and youngster Freddie Burns. Both Charlie Sharples and Olly Morgan know where the tryline is, the former having a scoring rate similar to Simpson-Daniel's, fortunately for us neither are playing on Sunday.

The pack boasts a wealth of experience – Azam, Andy Hazell and Peter Buxton have all played over 200 games for the club, Alex Brown is approaching that number.

Nick Wood and Luke Narraway also have over 100 games under their belts and Alasdair Dickinson and Alasdair Strokosch are Scottish internationals.

On the fans' side Gloucester's Cherry Picker expects an interesting game.

The welcome return of captain James Hudson is the headline team news from the Falcons, and Tane Tu'ipulotu will also look to make a comeback from the bench. Ally Hogg, Jimmy Gopperth, Luke Eves and Luke Fielden are back after missing the LV= Cup trip to Harlequins, as is Rob Vickers:

15 Jeremy Manning

14 Luke Fielden

13 Gcobani Bobo

12 Luke Eves

11 Charlie Amesbury

10 Jimmy Gopperth

9 Micky Young

1 Grant Shiells

2 Rob Vickers

3 Tim Ryan

4 James Hudson (captain)

5 Tim Swinson

6 Brent Wilson

7 Redford Pennycook

8 Ally Hogg

16 Joe Graham

17 Micky Ward

18 Kieran Brookes

19 Glen Townson

20 Will Welch

21 Hall Charlton

22 Tane Tu'ipulotu

23 Tom Catterick

Gloucester make two changes after the win against Saracens, bringing in Burns for Olly Morgan, and Scotland's Jim Hamilton returns north after playing against New Zealand in Edinburgh last weekend:

15 Freddie Burns

14 Charlie Sharples

13 Henry Trinder

12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu

11 James Simpson-Daniel

10 Tim Taylor

9 Jordi Pasqualin

1 Nick Wood

2 Olivier Azam

3 Paul Doran-Jones

4 Jim Hamilton

5 Alex Brown

6 Brett Deacon

7 Andy Hazell

8 Luke Narraway (captain)

16 Darren Dawidiuk

17 Yann Thomas

18 Pierre Capdevielle

19 Pete Buxton

20 Matt Cox

21 Dave Lewis

22 Tim Molenaar

23 Lesley Vainikolo

This Sunday is an absolutely massive game, coming before a tough trip to Leicester and a home game against Bath, a fixture we haven't won for seven years. As supporters let's make a massive noise and do everything we can to help our boys get the win we so desperately need.