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Luther Burrell to make Newcastle Falcons debut this weekend in friendly
Luther Burrell and Mark Fuser make their Newcastle Falcons debuts on Saturday at Ealing Trailfinders, ending both clubs’ eight-month wait for a game. The behind-closed-doors friendly is a 3pm kick-off at Trailfinders Sports Club, with a live stream available for £10 by visiting here.
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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.
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“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
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
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Referee: Wayne Barnes
Comments on RugbyPass
As long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
122 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
122 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
122 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
4 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to comments