By Leipziger
November 16 2006

It’s only November, but the Falcons make their second journey of the season to the small Adriatic colony of Stockport in the North West tomorrow night to take on the champions of England Sale at Edgeley Park. We were the Albanians’ first opponents of 2005/06 when they became the second Northern side as well as ourselves to win the championship (the North is the only region to produce two different title-winning clubs J) when Jonny Wilkinson, amid a cacophony of boos, could not convert Anthony Elliott’s last-gasp try to steal a victory, Sale winning 26-25 at their dual-use football stadium. It was Elliott’s second try on his debut for the Falcons, and he returns from injury to the bench this weekend.

Fixtures between the two clubs have in recent years gone with home advantage, with Sale never winning a Premiership match at Kingston Park but also being undefeated by Newcastle at Edgeley Park since moving there in 2003. That is four defeats on the bounce in Stockport, and it might not get much better tomorrow as no side has won there since Saracens in March.

So far this season, on the Sharks march to fourth in the table, Northampton, Saracens and Wasps have been beaten at home. Away however, Sale’s form has been patchy with defeats at Leicester and Bristol last week, although they have won at London Irish and Worcester. Two penalties and a drop goal from Daniel Larrachea were all Sale could manage at the Memorial Ground a week ago, in a tryless 15-9 defeat.

As previously stated, this is our second visit to Edgeley Park in less than two months, and John Fletcher will be hoping his side put in a better showing than in the EDF Energy Cup meeting on September 29th, when the home side ran home 28-5 with Matt Thompson’s solitary score coming after the 80 minutes were up. Sale had already scored three times through Oriol Ripol (2) and Chris Jones.

This is of course an international weekend, and both sides are depleted particularly in the backs with Toby Flood, Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait (Newcastle) and Andy Sheridan, Chris Jones, Charlie Hodgson and Mark Cueto (Sale) all in the England XXII. Sale can still call on World Cup Final try-scorer Jason Robinson however, as well as Magnus Lund, Steve Hanley, Welsh international Mark Taylor and bruising French duo Sebastien Bruno and Sebastien Chabal as they look to climb closer to the top of the Premiership:

15 Jason Robinson
14 Ben Foden
13 Mark Taylor
12 Chris Mayor
11 Oriol Ripol
10 Daniel Larrechea
9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Eifion Lewis Roberts
2 Sebastien Bruno
3 Ben Evans
4 Dean Schofield
5 Chris Day
6 Nathan Bonner-Evans
7 Magnus Lund
8 Sebastien Chabal

Replacements
16 Andy Titterrell
17 Stuart Turner/ Martin Halsall
18 Sean Cox
19 Michael Hills/Ben Lloyd
20 Sililo Martens
21 Lee Tomas/David Blair
22 Steve Hanley

The Falcons are bolstered after last weekend’s defeat to Harlequins at Kingston Park by culinary new signings Loki “Chopstix” Crichton and Joe “Pudding” McDonnell, who make their first starts at fly-half and loosehead respectively. Former Albanian James Hoyle starts for the first time this season at centre, and Mike McCarthy is our new number 8. Lee Dickson and Matt Thompson are rotated in.

15 Matthew Burke (captain)
14 Tom May
13 James Hoyle
12 Mark Mayerhofler
11 John Rudd
10 Loki Crichton
9 Lee Dickson
1 Joe McDonnell
2 Matt Thompson
3 David Wilson
4 Andy Perry
5 Jason Oakes
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Mike McCarthy

Replacements
Robbie Morris
Andy Long
Brent Wilson
Cory Harris
Joe Shaw
James Grindal
Anthony Elliott

The Falcons are eleventh in the table, seven points ahead of Worcester who visit Harlequins tomorrow. Worcester are capable of winning in London, therefore anything we can take from Sale will be welcome, but without our four first-choice midfield players to injury and international calls, it is probably too big an ask.

The Supporters’ Club is not running a coach to tomorrow night’s game (unless it’s back on since last Friday) due to a lack of demand, so those of us who will be in attendance will be in a bigger minority than normal to please shout as much as you can!!