Luther Burrell set for Newcastle debut in friendly

Marco Fuser and Luther Burrell make their Newcastle Falcons debuts on Saturday at Ealing Trailfinders, ending both clubs’ eight-month wait for a game.

The two clubs will meet against Kingston Park Stadium on Friday November 13 (3pm), with the newly-promoted Falcons beginning their Gallagher Premiership season away to Bath on Saturday November 21.

Ealing were the Falcons’ closest rivals during last season’s unbeaten campaign, Newcastle sitting 18 points above the West London outfit when the Championship season was brought to a premature end in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Italian international lock Fuser and former England centre Burrell add their vast experience to a squad which could also see debuts for England Under-18s wing Matthew Ward and ex-Doncaster centre Pete Lucock, who have both been included on the bench for a game which will be officiated by Wayne Barnes.

Joel Hodgson steers the ship from fly-half with Adam Radwan on the wing, the flyer having scored during the Falcons’ bonus-point victory at Ealing when they ground out a 26-14 pre-Christmas  triumph.

Director of rugby Dean Richards said: “This game has been a long time coming for both teams, and we know Ealing will provide a high standard of opposition over back-to-back matches.

“They made us work extremely hard for every single point on our last visit, and two highly-competitive games will help enable us to find that all-important match sharpness going into the Gallagher Premiership season.

“We’ve had the usual inter-squad games and full-contact training to keep things ticking over, but there’s no substitute for getting out there and trying things against another team.

“The great sadness of course is that our supporters won’t be able to be there in person to see it, but we know they will be following from afar and we appreciate their backing enormously.”

Newcastle Falcons team to face Ealing Trailfinders (Saturday, 3pm, Trailfinders Sports Club)

15 Tom Arscott

14 Adam Radwan

13 Luther Burrell

12 Joel Matavesi

11 Sinoti Sinoti

10 Joel Hodgson

9 Michael Young (captain)

1 Adam Brocklebank

2 George McGuigan

3 Mark Tampin

4 Greg Peterson

5 Marco Fuser

6 Sean Robinson

7 Connor Collett

8 Gary Graham

Replacements

16 Darren Barry

17 Kyle Cooper

18 Logovi’i Mulipola

19 Rob Farrar

20 Will Welch

21 Matthew War

22 Toby Flood

23 Ben Stevenson

2 Charlie Maddison

3 Mike Daniels

8 Tom Marshall

9 Sam Stuart

12 Pete Lucock

15 Brett Connon

Referee: Wayne Barnes