Falcons need to be tougher on the road

HEAD coach John Wells says Newcastle Falcons have to be mentally switched-on as they visit his former club Leicester Tigers in today’s televised Aviva Premiership clash.

The 3pm kick-off sees the Falcons facing the side they lost out to by a single point when they met in the North East back in September, Newcastle going into the Welford Road encounter on the back of a last-minute home win over Gloucester.

Match-winner that night, Joel Hodgson, replaces Mike Delany at fly-half after the Kiwi broke his thumb last time out, Sinoti Sinoti coming into the side as an injury to Alex Tait sees Marcus Watson switch to full-back. The only change in the forward pack sees Tonga captain Nili Latu replacing Ally Hogg, the Falcons looking to win at Welford Road for the first time in almost two decades.

Wells, a long-time player and coach with the Tigers, said: “We tend to be more mentally robust at home than we are away for some reason, and even when teams come to Kingston Park with an all-singing, all-dancing squad, we tend to have a more positive and robust mind-set. Part of the challenge for us as coaches and our group of players is to take that same mentality with us when we’re away, and to have that ability to rise to the occasion at other grounds.

“We may not always win at home but we play consistently better, and seem to be more mentally switched-on. It’s fair to say there are a few other clubs in the same boat, and it’s also a mark of the sides at the top of the league that they can produce it on the road. The next stage in our club’s development is to go to the so-called big places on a more consistent basis, and do what we did by winning at Gloucester and Northampton earlier in the season.

“Newcastle have not won at Welford Road in almost 20 years, and to put it into context our director of rugby Dean Richards was playing in that game.”