Falcons star Toby ready for Euro scrap with former boss Cockerill

TOBY FLOOD has warned Newcastle they must meet fire with fire when they clash with his old boss Richard Cockerill tonight.

Falcons face Edinburgh in the Champions Cup for the first time since beating them home and away to reach the quarter-finals in 2005.

A repeat would go a long way to achieving the same outcome and continue a fairy-tale Euro campaign for the Premiership’s bottom side.

But Flood says Cockerill (right), his former gaffer at Leicester, is a major obstacle between Newcastle and the Promised Land.

“He’ll have them playing very much in the Cockerill manner,” cautioned the former England fly-half, who played for six years under him. “Tenacious, aggressive, wanting to make everything a contest. “Cockers is a good coach and motivator. He’ll understand the importance of this game to the tournament, but also in terms of the local rivalry. He’ll drive home the importance of bragging rights.” Falcons have already beaten the two fancied teams in Pool 5, becoming only the second side ever to win a European tie at Toulon before stealing victory at home against Montpellier with a 39-phase move on the final play of the game.

No wonder Cockerill has told his players the game has a ‘do-or-die’ feel to it, before assuring them that “when we’ve got our combinations right we’re as good as any team in Europe”.

In the same year that Scotland beat England on the same Murrayfield pitch, he can also tap into the tartan passion that always shows itself when English teams venture north of the border.

“There is certainly a rivalry between the two sides because we are very close neighbours and because of Anglo-Scottish history,” Flood conceded.

“We might be closer to