Richards: Falcons can end 20-year barren run
FIT-AGAIN flanker Mark Wilson captains Newcastle Falcons for tonight’s crucial Premiership clash with Leicester Tigers.
The fourth-placed Falcons travel to the fifth-placed Tigers determined to press home their claims on a semi-final spot, with Wilson making his first start since the league victory at Harlequins on February 24 after overcoming a hamstring injury.
Wilson’s return is one of four changes to the team which started last Friday’s European Challenge Cup semi-final defeat at Gloucester.
Ally Hogg replaces Ryan Burrows at number eight in the only other change to the forward pack.
Former Tiger Vereniki Goneva returns on the right wing as Chris Harris moves infield, and Sinoti Sinoti comes back in as the Falcons strive for their first win at Welford Road since December 1997.
That match was the last of Dean Richards’ 314 competitive appearances for Leicester, with the Falcons’ director of rugby saying ahead of tonight’s 7.45pm kick-off: “They’ve got a full international front row and a tasty back line, but we’ve got a good pack ourselves and a load of talent in the backs.
“It’s nicely poised when you look at the whole contest, and it should be an interesting game.
“I wouldn’t be going down there if I didn’t have the confidence that we could win, and it’s a massive opportunity for us.”
Confident his side can bounce back from last week’s loss, Richards (below) said: “We’ve sat down and picked it to pieces, and even that first passage of the game when we had the ball in hand for over two minutes we missed three blatant overlaps.
“That was just due to our own inaccuracy in terms of executing what we said we were going to do, and that was the most difficult thing to come to terms with.
“Enthusiasm isn’t enough at this level, you have to be accurate with it, and you can’t afford to go wildly off-script for periods of time. But we’ve put that to bed now, we’ve taken from it what we needed to take and it will be a different performance down at Leicester.”
With Leicester building up the game as an unofficial Premiership quarter-final, Richards is well aware of what to expect at his former home, saying: “The atmosphere won’t affect the players. If anything it will affect the referee more than the lads. You can get the most impartial referee in the world but as soon as he steps out at Welford Road it can change, and I can say that because I benefited from it for about 20 years. “That’s just the nature of the beast and we’ll have to adjust things accordingly, but from the players’ point of view they’ve played in enough big atmospheres to know not to get fazed by it.
“From their end it’s just a case of going out there and getting the job done, which means beating a very good Leicester side.”
Out to end Newcastle’s 20-year wait for a victory at Welford Road, Richards added: “We’re going down there with a really positive mind-set in terms of taking the game to them.
“We know they’ll come out like a train in the first few minutes. It’s not a problem.”