Teenage star edges Wilko at Falcons
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:34
Newcastle Falcons will hand a Guinness Premiership debut to England Under-18 flyhalf Rory Clegg on Sunday, as they host Sale Sharks at Kingston Park in a Round One match.
The 18-year-old scooped man-of-the-match honours in the Falcons' 37-10 pre-season victory over French big-spenders Racing Metro, and takes his place in the side with Jonny Wilkinson given more time to recover from shoulder surgery.
Director of Rugby Steve Bates sang the youngster's praises.
"Rory is an extremely talented player with a fantastic temperament, he has dealt very well with playing two full games for the first team in pre-season and we look forward to seeing him transfer that on to the Guinness Premiership stage on Sunday," Bates said.
"Jonny took a very active part in training this week and was close to making the game, but having spoken to the medical team we just felt this weekend was a little too soon for him."
Elsewhere in the side there is the prospect of a Tait-versus-Tait battle at fullback, with younger brother Alex handed the Falcons No.15 shirt (older brother Matthew moved to Sale in the off season), while new signings Adam Balding and Spencer Davey are both included at flank and centre respectively.
Injuries rule out Ed Williamson (elbow), Jon Golding (knee), Ross Beattie (ankle) and Danny Williams (ankle) among others, with Bates insisting he expects an exciting opening to the new Guinness Premiership campaign after a gruelling off-season on the training pitch.
"We're looking forward to it after a very good pre-season, and the boys are in fantastic shape," he said.
"Our training camp in France was very profitable from a team-building and spirit point of view, it came just at the right time for us and what we have done is really tested them. We have learnt a lot about the players, Alan Tait and Stuart Grimes have had a significant input since joining the coaching team and we're pleased with the progress we are making."
With some media attention being focused on players leaving the club during the off-season, Bates insisted: "There is no reason why we shouldn't be hugely competitive against every team in this league, and we go in to every match expecting to win.
"Our squad is as strong, if not stronger, than last season, because what we have now is more specialists playing in positions which are suited to them, which we never always had in the previous year. I'm excited about Adam Balding coming in to the forward pack to give us that little bit more presence, and I think we are a much stronger outfit now in the sense that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
"Losing Matt Burke has obviously been a blow to us, but when you have a legendary world class player and bloke like him I think sometimes you just have to accept that he is irreplaceable. You could scour the earth for the next ten years and not find anyone in his league, and if you look at the top fullbacks in world rugby right now there is no-one even close to his level of understanding the game.
"What we do have here is a number of players who have benefited from Matt's influence, they have watched him excel at fullback for the last four years and he has worked closely with all of them, and these are the guys who now have the chance to stake a claim for the shirt. This week we have Alex Tait starting, an outstanding talent who is arguably more suited to the fullback position than his brother, and he is someone I'm very much looking forward to seeing out there."
With a new season and a new approach from the league's most northerly club, Bates said: "We have made some pretty fundamental tactical changes over the summer which will mean our capacity to score tries will be significantly increased, and we have also brought on board a specialist in Alan Tait to work on tightening up our defence.
"We'll just have to see in these early games what progress we have made, go back and refine things and take it from there. What we have already seen though, particularly against Racing Metro in our last game, is that we are creating opportunities in the right area of the field."
With the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) being a hot topic going in to the new campaign, Bates said: "I don't think the new laws will be very difficult to referee, they are all fairly straightforward, it is more the tactical implications that will be interesting.
"We haven't really seen enough rugby in European winter conditions to evaluate what difference they will make, and we won't know that until it starts chucking down and snowing every week in December. It's fine watching these pristine pitches and sunny conditions in the southern hemisphere, but on a wet and windy Friday at Kingston Park it could well be a different story when it turns in to a kicking fest.
"I think most people are agreed the five-metre offside line at the scrum will be excellent for the game, and we will see a lot of play developing from the scrummage. The change to the driving maul law is a good one, because realistically you couldn't really stop it, but now it means you have to be much more technically adept to get a good rolling maul going."
Sale Sharks again provide the opening-day opposition for Newcastle, with Bates saying: "I've seen two of their pre-season games myself, Stuart Grimes went down to see them play Lyon last week and what everyone knows about them is that they are an undoubtedly talented group of players.
"Having said that, there are areas where they are vulnerable and it is down to us to attack them there. We have spent lots of time this week coming up with a strategy specific for this game which we feel will really test Sale, and we need to make it difficult for them to play with what is a very potent back line.
"We obviously know some of their players very well, we know the frailties of those players, and we're very confident of getting the job done. What I have certainly seen among the squad is a feeling of renewed vigour, and we're all excited about the prospects for this weekend."
Newcastle Falcons: 15 Alex Tait, 14 Tom May, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Spencer Davey, 11 John Rudd, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 James Grindal, 8 Phil Dowson (captain), 7 Brent Wilson, 6 Adam Balding, 5 Mark Sorenson, 4 Andy Buist, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Andy Long, 1 Joe McDonnell.
Replacements: 16 Matt Thompson, 17 Micky Ward, 18 Geoff Parling, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Hall Charlton, 21 Steve Jones, 22 Tim Visser.
Date: Sunday, September 7
Venue: Kingston Park, Newcastle
Kick-off: 15.00 (14.00 GMT)
Referee: Martin Fox
Touch judges: Alan Hughes, Paul Emerson
TMO: Trevor Parlett
