By Leipziger
November 30 2006

Having given Kingston Park a miss last season as they were in Division 1, Harlequins come north for the second time in three weeks on Saturday, looking to repeat their victory here in November as the EDF Energy Cup group campaign wraps up. Quins won a drab televised Premiership match 3-14 with converted tries from David Strettle and Mark Easter, with a Matthew Burke penalty all the Falcons could come up with in front of a 9,000 plus crowd. Half of that would be a success this weekend.

Harlequins’ win at KP came amidst a run of five successive Premiership and European victories, which came to an end last Friday at Edgeley Park against Sale when the Champions’ Magnus Lund scored the only try of the night. Adrian Jarvis was the Quins’ only scorer with four penalties in a 17-12 loss.

Our visitors lost both of their opening Cup matches, 26-7 at Llanelli and 27-28 at home to Sale in October and with only one point their campaign is all over bar the shouting, as they have no chance of going through to the semi-finals. All three other sides however have a chance to progress, with Llanelli and Sale the favourites as both can go through regardless of our result.

Sale head the table with 8 points, then Llanelli with 5, us on 4 and finally Harlequins with one. Happy Hooker explained the qualification scenario this morning:

1. Quins have no chance of qualifying so they field a weakened side on Saturday and we beat them scoring four tries in the process and grabbing five points. That's the tricky part.
2. Scarlets beat a bruised and battered Sale at Edgeley Park taking four points and denying Sale a bonus point.
Falcons and Scarlets end up with 9 pts each and we qualify for the semis having beaten Scarlets handsomely at KP.
However if Sale manage a bonus point three teams would end up with 9pts each and then it gets really complicated. I guess we’d have to wait for Doddie to let us know post-match who went through.

All four of the Falcons’ recent signings start on Saturday, with Loki Crichton at full-back, Joe McDonnell captaining from prop on his home debut, Mark Sorenson in the second row and Russell Winter at number 8. A completely changed back seven sees Toby Flood and Mathew Tait return from England duty, as Matthew Burke and Jamie Noon are rested, and Tim Visser and Anthony Elliott are back.

Micky Ward is fit again to play at tighthead, and Brent Wilson and Cory Harris get a game in the back row.

15 Loki Crichton
14 Anthony Elliott
13 Mathew Tait
12 Joe Shaw
11 Tim Visser
10 Toby Flood
9 James Grindal
1 Joe McDonnell (captain)
2 Matt Thompson
3 Micky Ward
4 Mark Sorenson
5 Jason Oakes
6 Brent Wilson
7 Cory Harris
8 Russell Winter

Replacements:
Jon Golding
Andy Long
Mike McCarthy
Eni Gesinde
John Rudd
Lee Dickson
Tom Dillon

Harlequins team TBC.