Newcastle Falcons announce team to face Harlequins
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Sam Stuart makes his 100th appearance for Newcastle Falcons on Saturday when they make the Gallagher Premiership trip to his former club, Harlequins.
The scrum-half reaches the century mark in a team showing just one change – Philip van der Walt returning from the illness which forced his late withdrawal from the opening-night visit of Bristol Bears.
Ethan Grayson is poised to make his Falcons debut having been named on the bench for the 3pm kick-off at the Twickenham Stoop, with the former England Under-20s back having recently signed a short-term contract.
Director of rugby Steve Diamond said: “I’ve been pretty consistent with our team selection and I’m not one to panic after one game.
“As you can imagine we’ve been working hard on our line-out this week, but I’m confident we’ve got the personnel in both the playing and coaching departments to make the necessary adjustments.
“There were lots of good aspects we can take from the Bristol game in terms of our first-half defence and some of the opportunities we created, so it’s a case of keeping cool heads and just improving on those couple of key areas which cost us in our first outing.”
Asked about the impact of his new signings last weekend, Diamond said: “Sammy Arnold showed what he is about with some big hits, line-breaks and offloads, and is starting to build that partnership with Connor Doherty.
“Tom Gordon was the joint top tackler in the league and also showed up well in the loose, and there’s lots we can build on.
“Harlequins away this weekend will be a great challenge. They were probably a bit unlucky not to win at Sale last weekend, they’ve got a lot of threat within their squad and we know it will be a big test.
“We’ve got to have that real hardened mentality with a long bus trip and everything else that comes with it, but the lads have worked well this week and we’re all looking forward to it.”
Newcastle Falcons team to face Harlequins (Saturday, 3pm, Twickenham Stoop)
15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Connor Doherty, 12 Sammy Arnold, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Richard Palframan, 4 John Hawkins, 5 Kiran McDonald, 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).
Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Luan de Bruin, 18 Murray McCallum, 19 Freddie Lockwood, 20 Adam Scott, 21 Joe Davis, 22 Ben Redshaw, 23 Ethan Grayson.
Not available for selection: Eduardo Bello, Tim Cardall, Sebastian de Chaves, Alex Hearle, Cameron Neild, Pedro Rubiolo, Kieran Wilkinson.
