By Mally (26/03/03)
March 26 2003

There is international action for several Newcastle Falcons this weekend as the 6 Nations draws to a close, with Falcons representing England, Scotland, England A and also the England Sevens squad. England

Jonny Wilkinson will be looking to rub out the memory of England's last visit to Lansdowne Road with a win to secure that elusive Grand Slam. Wilkinson is the only Newcastle Falcon in the side. Having previously made it into the training squad Jamie Noon has joined Phil Dowson in England squad looking to defend their Hong Kong Sevens title.

The only changes to the England side are on the bench where Leicester Tigers' hooker Dorian West, who scored two tries against Newcastle Falcons on March 16th replaces Leeds Tykes' Mark Regan, Kyran Bracken also gets the nod replacing Andy Gomarsall. According to Clive Woodward the selection process was easy.

"We’re going to go with the same starting 15, I looked closely but after watching the replays I thought we’d played particularly well. We seem to have stepped up a gear from the first few games."

"It’s not the time to experiment in a one-off game we want to win - one we must win. It’s time to have some continuity after the last game. We’ll talk to individual players about the things we can improve."

However the England A team is not so rigid, with Newcastle Falcons' Michael Stephenson joining club mate Hugh Vyvyan in the A squad for the match against Ireland A, both Vyvyan and Stephenson are starting on the bench.

Scotland

While England Falcons are focused on the Grand Slam, possible Hong Kong Sevens glory or staking their claims for selection at the highest level, the Scotland pair, Stuart Grimes and Andrew Mower have a more pressing concern - avoiding the Woooden Spoon!

Grimes and Mower have been named in the Scotland squad, who take on Italy at Murrayfield this weekend. Scotland are currently just off the bottom of the 6 Nations table, with just one win to their credit. The bottom side Wales have a hard task away in Paris against France, and are likely to end up with the Wooden Spoon, Scotland will be looking for a strong performance against Italy to end what has been an unimpressive 6 Nations from them.

England Team

15 Josh Lewsey (London Wasps), 14 Jason Robinson (Sharks), 13 Will Greenwood (NEC Harlequins), 12 Mike Tindall (Bath), 11 Ben Cohen (Northampton Saints), 10 Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons, vice-captain), 9 Matt Dawson (Northampton Saints)
1 Graham Rowntree (Leicester Tigers), 2 Steve Thompson (Northampton Saints), 3 Jason Leonard (NEC Harlequins), 4 Martin Johnson (Leicester Tigers, captain), 5 Ben Kay (Leicester Tigers), 6 Richard Hill (Saracens), 7 Neil Back (Leicester Tigers), 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (London Wasps, vice-captain)

Replacements

16 Dorian West (Leicester Tigers), 17 Trevor Woodman (Gloucester), 18 Danny Grewcock (Bath), 19 Joe Worsley (London Wasps), 20 Kyran Bracken (Saracens), 21 Paul Grayson (Northampton Saints), 22 Dan Luger (NEC Harlequins)

England A

15 Dan Scarbrough (Leeds Tykes), 14 Phil Christophers (Bristol Shoguns), 13 Fraser Waters (London Wasps), 12 Ben Johnston (Saracens), 11 Mark Cueto (The Sharks), 10 Alex King (London Wasps), 9 Andy Gomarsall (Gloucester, vice-captain), 1 Mike Worsley (London Irish), 2 Mark Regan (Leeds Tykes), 3 Robbie Morris (Northampton Saints), 4 Simon Shaw (London Wasps), 5 Chris Jones (The Sharks), 6 Martin Corry (Leicester Tigers, Captain), 7 Adam Vander (Bath), 8 James Forrester (Gloucester)

Replacements

16 Andy Titterrell (The Sharks), 17 Maurice Fitzgerald (Biarritz), 18 Tom Palmer (Leeds Tykes), 19 Hugh Vyvyan (Newcastle Falcons), 20 Nick Walshe (The Sharks), 21 Ollie Barkley (Bath), 22 Michael Stephenson (Newcastle Falcons)

Scotland squad

Forwards

Ross Beattie (Bristol), Gordon Bulloch (Glasgow), Bruce Douglas (The Borders), Stuart Grimes (Newcastle), Nathan Hines (Edinburgh), Gavin Kerr (Leeds), Andrew Mower (Newcastle), Scott Murray (Edinburgh), Robert Russell (Saracens), Tom Smith (Northampton), Simon Taylor (Edinburgh), Jason White (Glasgow).

Backs

Mike Blair (Edinburgh), Andy Craig (Orrell), Kenny Logan (London), James McLaren (Bordeaux-Begles), Glenn Metcalfe (Glasgow), Chris Paterson (Edinburgh), Bryan Redpath (Sale Sharks, captain), Gordon Ross (Leeds Tykes), Gregor Townsend (The Borders), Kevin Utterson (The Borders)

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