Burrell will be back for trip to Irish
LUTHER Burrell makes his first Premiership appearance of the season for Newcastle Falcons at London Irish this afternoon, having missed the bulk of the campaign with a knee injury.
He is partnered in the centre by Max Wright as George Wacokecoke recovers from a damaged eye socket suffered during last weekend’s 24-24 draw with Worcester Warriors.
Tom Penny starts on the wing with Ben Stevenson having suffered an ankle injury, Will Haydon-Wood coming in at fly-half.
Gary Graham captains the side in place of the injured Will Welch, Jamie Blamire and Carl Fearns also missing out due to injury.
The Falcons were 52-27 winners the last time the two teams met in Newcastle in May but forwards’ coach Micky Ward is expecting a stern test at the Brentford Community Stadium against an Exiles side which won at champions Harlequins last Saturday.
He said: “Irish have a decent pack and we were stung down there last season when they caught us out in a few areas.
“We have to keep taking steps forward, turning up with the right mind-set and understanding it will not just happen automatically against a quality pack like London Irish’s.
“They have a big set of forwards, a good line-out and a solid scrum, so we have to be better than we were last weekend.”
Asked about the draw with Worcester, Ward added: “We were frustrated last week even though we took three points because we had enough opportunities to take all five.
“Our set-piece went well, our scrum and maul were both on-point but it did not transfer over to the scoreline and we have to look at everything as a whole.
“We cannot pat ourselves on the back for having a dominant set-piece if we are not then working back into position and keeping hold of the ball and it is not good enough to just have two areas working well.”
On the threat posed by today’s hosts, the Falcons’ all-time record appearance maker went on: “It will be a tough challenge because Irish are in good form and there probably are not many people outside of their club who said they were going to win at Harlequins last weekend.
“In the last few weeks they have massively stepped up.
“We will need to have a good setpiece, play in the right areas of the pitch, be solid in defence and just keep on it the whole time.
“If we can do all of those things we will give ourselves a great chance.”