By Leipziger
December 29 2006

The Falcons are Harlequins’ first foot on Monday as we travel to the Stoop looking to win the season’s tie-breaking match with the Londoners on New Years Day. The Falcons haven’t won there since 2000, losing their last four visits to Twickenham’s smaller rugby ground. The two sides have already met twice this season at Kingston Park, winning once apiece. The Quins were victorious on a dark, depressing Friday night in November, whilst a hollow victory (someone stole my headline, don’t you know…) for Newcastle at the beginning of December failed to secure us a place in the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals.

An early Burke penalty was all the Falcons could manage in November as David Strettle and Nick Easter’s tries secured Quins a 3-14 win in front of the TV cameras, the last match before the introduction to the club of Joe McDonnell, Mark Sorenson and Russell Winter. The latter pair both play on Monday.

Currently eighth in the Premiership table, in their first season back in the top division, and begin 2007 on the back of a vital 20-27 win at Worcester through tries from Strettle, Simon Keogh and Mike Brown, and twelve points from the boot of Andrew Mehrtens.

We should beware of that – Quins began the season with seven successive defeats, the five successive wins, and then lost their previous five games before the trip to Worcester. So we might expect them to go on another winning run now, although the last two visitors to the Stoop both won, Bath in the European Challenge Cup (18-24) and Saracens in the league (16-20).

The previously mentioned Mehrtens is probably Harlequins’ biggest name, along with their former Leicester title-winning player and coach, now Quins DoR, Dean Richards. Mehrtens combines with another experienced international, former England fly-half Andy Gomarsall. Andre Vos, with 32 South African caps, however is always a threat from flanker in front of England centre Stuart Abbott.

Our last trip to the Stoop (where on a glorious afternoon in May 1998 the Falcons ran riot to secure the Premiership title of course!) in March 2005 Harlequins were the winners 39-25, Jonny Wilkinson lasting just 36 minutes of his fourth comeback after the World Cup. George Harder, Jim Evans, Tani Fuga and Tom Williams’ tries gave the hosts a bonus point to help in their ultimately fruitless battle against relegation, whilst the Newcastle unlikely scorers were Semo Sititi and Mark Mayerhofler.

A bit of trivia – Galo Alvarez Quinones made his Falcons debut that day too, as a replacement for Micky Ward!

Onto the teams, John Fletcher has changed over half his side following the Boxing Day, bonus-point win over Sale. Matthew Burke returns to full back as captain with Joe McDonnell rested completely, Jon Golding coming into the front row with Andy Long. Toby Flood plays at centre with Loki Crichton replacing Tuesday’s Man of the Match at fly-half, and Andy Perry and Eni Gesinde are in the pack as Jason Oakes and Geoff Parling drop to the bench along with Anthony Elliott.

15 Matthew Burke (captain)
14 Tom May
13 Mathew Tait
12 Toby Flood
11 John Rudd
10 Loki Crichton
9 Lee Dickson

1 Jon Golding
2 Andy Long
3 Micky Ward
4 Mark Sorenson
5 Andy Perry
6 Eni Gesinde
7 Brent Wilson
8 Russell Winter

Replacements:
Johnny Williams
Matt Thompson
Jason Oakes
Geoff Parling
Tom Dillon
James Grindal
Anthony Elliott

Happy New Year everyone!