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Newcastle Falcons team v Harlequins (Friday, 7.45pm, the Twickenham Stoop)

15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Penny (captain), 13 George Wacokecoke, 12 Pete Lucock, 11 Adam Radwan, 10 Will Haydon-Wood, 9 Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti; 1 Trevor Davison, 2 George McGuigan, 3 Mark Tampin, 4 Greg Peterson, 5 Rob Farrar, 6 Sean Robinson, 7 Josh Basham, 8 Tom Marshall.

Replacements: 16 Charlie Maddison, 17 Adam Brocklebank, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Will Montgomery, 20 Freddie Lockwood, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Brett Connon, 23 Max Wright.

Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Tommy Allan, 9 Danny Care; 1 Joe Marler, 2 Sam Riley, 3 Wilco Louw, 4 Matt Symons, 5 Hugh Tizard, 6 Stephan Lewies (captain), 7 Tom Lawday, 8 Archie White.

Replacements: 16 Jack Walker, 17 Simon Kerrod, 18 Will Collier, 19 George Hammond, 20 Matas Jurevicius, 21 Lewis Gjaltema, 22 Will Edwards, 23 Luke Northmore.

Referee: Karl Dickson.

Those of us who have been asking for our Academy lads to get some experience should be happy enough. They might get a spanking, but they will learn, and this season is written off anyway, so let's aim for some building towards next season & sod the actual results, painful as that may be.

As for the referee, well we know him well, and if even one result goes in our favour I may crack open the champagne, but we all know that we are going to be whistled off the park, and will likely get 15 red cards to boot. Actually, make that 23.

Looks interesting in that second row for us Peterson and Farr.

Like the look of the team but that Quins backline is scary. Real shame Collett is injured as our pack has had a completely different look with him and Basham in tandem.

Is it a televised match?

Yes, as stated in the offy article (always worth a read), it’s on BT Sport.

Quote:

markismith50
Yes, as stated in the offy article (always worth a read), it’s on BT Sport.

I always include a link so people click on it and go to the website to get the rest of the article.

Should Dickson be refereeing his former side?

Thanks Aidan, it’s always appreciated.

Quote:

alas
Should Dickson be refereeing his former side?

That was exactly my thoughts. How does he get to referee the team he played with for years ? Seems strange.

Quote:

PurpleGroundhog

Quote:

alas
Should Dickson be refereeing his former side?

That was exactly my thoughts. How does he get to referee the team he played with for years ? Seems strange.

A Quin here in peace. He has obviously decided he feels sufficiently impartial now to come home. Let’s hope he doesn’t give Danny Care, Mike Brown and Joe Marler too hard a time. At least you have Deano in the truck as TMO! 😄( Yes I do know) Hope Deano is going to make the trip as spectator so those sitting near him can wind him up. Let’s hope it is a good game with no reffing dramas like the Wales match. The match up at Kingston Park at the start of the season was certainly enjoyable. Shame Chick is out I thought he was good.

Quote:

alas
Should Dickson be refereeing his former side?

Simply - no

Yikes, Quins look strong even without Smith and Dombrandt.
I just want to see us try something different and to improve on the mistakes that we have kept making for a while now. As long as it's not a cricket score and we play something decent in attack.

Karl Dickson is not only the worse ref in England, he's also a Quins man of many years!!
Fearing the worse, hoping for the best.

A certain former Jarrow captain and very good player turned ref and by all accounts was very good at it.

He was shocking against us when he played - I mean reffed - for the opposition.

He knew us too well so picked out our cheats and failures out and whistles them as they happened.

In the end a lot of us wouldn’t play a game if he was ref.

Let’s hope Dickson goes so far the other way that we benefit, but in the other hand he could just be shockingly bad for both.

As bad as he can be he'll be warming up for next Fri where he'll ref Fra v Scots... He can't be that bad can he?

Re the team, we look thin on the ground, injuries hitting hard?

Its funny that Farrar has come in at lock when monty has been on the bench for a while now, covering 4, 5 and 6 and looked good doing it too.

I like Farrar when he has played though. Perhaps they see Montgomery more as a 6? He seems quite athletic so I suppose he could play there and be an extra lime out option too.

I had to do a double take when I saw who was reffing. The referee played 169 times for the home team and of course he will be completely impartial. Talk about a hostage to fortune.

Quote:

Marco19819
Its funny that Farrar has come in at lock when monty has been on the bench for a while now, covering 4, 5 and 6 and looked good doing it too.
I like Farrar when he has played though. Perhaps they see Montgomery more as a 6? He seems quite athletic so I suppose he could play there and be an extra lime out option too.

Surprised at the Farrar start at lock too, always thought he was more of a flanker as he’s fairly short for lock (think he’s listed as 6’3) and Montgomery did well against Exeter in the away game.
Think we’ll probably lose heavily but hopefully the academy lads do well, need to show a bit more at the breakdown with no Collett in the team.

Agree Heb- very odd. I thought farrar was a back row at 6, 3! What do we know though eh?! Haha

What height is Callum green
He must be one fo the shorter locks ?

Quote:

alas
Should Dickson be refereeing his former side?

This might sound odd, but I dont actually care if we get beaten by quite a bit tonight.

Theres Lots of young lads, out there, mobile athletic players, many barely out of the academy...lets just see them play a high energy pacy game and try to have a go at quins.

SHow us what they can bring to the falcons going forward....

Quote:

aidanb
What height is Callum green
He must be one fo the shorter locks ?

If I remember he was about 6'4 so not that tall for a lock but was excellent in the lineout.

Quote:

GeordieFalcon
This might sound odd, but I dont actually care if we get beaten by quite a bit tonight.
Theres Lots of young lads, out there, mobile athletic players, many barely out of the academy...lets just see them play a high energy pacy game and try to have a go at quins.

SHow us what they can bring to the falcons going forward....

Nope, not odd at all. If we play well & lose, then to me that is progress. If we play badly & lose, well maybe the apprentice experiment didn't go so well, but we really do have to try these things, and what better time to do it!

With nothing better to do while munching lunch I looked up Karl Dickson's record with us. He has refereed 4 of our games, Wasps Sep 18, Glos Dec 18, Sarries Apr 19 & Leics Mar 21, and we lost all of them.

So we are past due a win with him there

Tbf we lose so frequently that doesn’t prove anything at all.

Just had a look at some of the game on Prem Rugny TV.

52 mins.

Brocklebank gets pinged for stepping out at the scrum.

Ref got it completely wrong because yes Adam did come out but if someone had been paying attention at the other side they’d have seen Jo Marler.

Marler is a loose head.
Palframan is our tight head at that scrum.

Jo Marler bursts up through our front row between Palframan and McGuigan.

With straight shoulders a loose head can’t get there and it has a knock on effect of pushing George and Adam across

We get penalised.

This is what Deano meant when he said the ref either didn’t know what they were doing are were working to an agenda - those last bits are my words.

Think of poor Brocklebank when it was even more obvious, absolutely dicked the exeter props and got penalised by ignorant officials

I spoke to him by the side of the pitch.

He was furious

Quote:

aidanb
I spoke to him by the side of the pitch.
He was furious

Not surprised. If you spoke to me, I'd be furious too.

Quote:

Monkey1

Quote:

aidanb
I spoke to him by the side of the pitch.
He was furious

Not surprised. If you spoke to me, I'd be furious too.

Hahahahhaha.