By Leipziger
November 12 2010

This Sunday the Falcons take on Harlequins at the Stoop for the second time this season, hoping to build on last weekend’s good start to the LV= Cup campaign.

At the start of October the ESPN cameras saw the Falcons beaten 23-12 in the Premiership by Quins despite a strong spell of possession in the second half, and two further defeats since then have left us in 11^th place in the Premiership while it will likely take four good wins in the European Challenge Cup to ensure we are still in that competition by Valentine’s Day.

And so it is to the LW Friendly Cup that we should perhaps now look for our most realistic chance of silverware in 2010/11. The defeat of Ospreys was our first win in this competition since November 2007, and amongst our poor run since then was a dour home loss to Quins almost a year to the day before our upcoming meeting.

A largely second-string Falcons side were already beaten by the time Michael Tait came off the bench to score a debut try to reduce the deficit to 8-19, as former Falcon Rory Clegg’s boot saw Harlequins take the points at Kingston Park.

Even though it turned out to be a hollow victory, Newcastle did beat Harlequins in this competition at KP in December 2006. Mark Sorenson, Russell Winter and captain Joe McDonnell all made their home debuts and tries from Tim Visser, Jason Oakes and John Rudd secured us a 21-18 victory, although Sale eventually qualified from our group by winning all of their three matches.

A quick scan of the team sheet from four years ago shows that only three starters – Matt Thompson, Micky Ward and Brent Wilson – are still with the Falcons, along with replacement Jon Golding, who at the time was enduring a tricky first season in the North East.

Quins are currently third in pool 4 of the LV= Cup after a 25-34 win at Leicester on Guy Fawkes Night, sitting behind Exeter and Bath on points difference. Our hosts will have high hopes of going into the cup’s winter break with two wins out of two having not lost at home to the Falcons since September 2000.

The Falcons apparently make no less than 13 changes from the team that beat Ospreys, although looking at the below line-up, which Steve posted, I only see nine (in the starting team at least). Michael Tait makes his first start of the season alongside Gcobani Bobo, Andy Henderson and Alex Tait in the backline and Jeremy Manning replaces Jimmy Gopperth at fly-half. Redford Pennycook and Tim Swinson are back in the starting XV and there is a place from the off for Will Welch.

Tim Swinson is captain and Hall Charlton makes the 22 for the first time this season:

15 Alex Tait

14 Michael Tait

13 Gcobani Bobo

12 Andy Henderson

11 Charlie Amesbury

10 Jeremy Manning

9 Micky Young

1 Grant Shiells

2 Joe Graham

3 Kieran Brookes

4 Glen Townson

5 Tim Swinson (captain)

6 Will Welch

7 Redford Pennycook

8 Mark Wilson

16 Sean Crombie

17 Micky Ward

18 James Hall

19 Brent Wilson

20 Ally Hogg

21 Hall Charlton

22 James Fitzpatrick

23 Tom Catterick

Rory Clegg and Pete Browne are in the Harlequins team for this Sunday. Conor O’Shea mixes a number of youngsters with the experience of Lion Ollie Smith, and Tom Guest and Ceri Jones are on the bench if needed.

15 Ross Chisholm

14 Sam Smith

13 Ollie Smith

12 Tom Casson (captain)

11 George Lowe

10 Rory Clegg

9 Dave Moore

1 Joe Marler

2 Chris Brooker

3 Mark Lambert

4 Ollie Kohn

5 Pete Browne

6 Maurie Fa’asavalu

7 Luke Wallace

8 Chris York

16 Joe Gray

17 Ceri Jones

18 James Johnston

19 George Robson

20 Tom Guest

21 Karl Dickson

22 Ben Urdapiletta

23 Ollie Lindsay-Hague