Falcons Racing into the pre-season
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:34
Newcastle Falcons will head across the Channel for their pre-season fixtures, which include encounters with French club Racing Métro 92 and Leeds Carnegie.
The games are in addition to the previously-announced home date with Australian Super 14 side Western Force, which takes place at Kingston Park on Friday August 8 - as part of Matthew Burke's farewell week.
The game against Racing Métro 92 will be played on Sunday August 24 at Lille's 18,000-capacity Stadium Nord Lille Métropole, home of Lille's soccer team, and will form the culmination of a five-day French training camp.
Known in France as 'le Racing', the star-studded Paris-based team narrowly missed out on promotion to the French Top 14 after last weekend's ProD2 Final, but the big-spending club still boasts star names like Agustín Pichot and David Auradou.
The other match in Newcastle's pre-season campaign comes
on Sunday August 17 at Headingley Carnegie, as the Falcons face Leeds Carnegie.
The side for that game will be a mixture of first team and Development players, with kick-off set for 13.00 (12.00 GMT).
Falcons Director of Rugby, Steve Bates, said: "We have excellent variety in our pre-season programme for this year, and it should provide great preparation for the new campaign.
"Opening against Western Force will give us a good insight to the new laws against a team which has already been playing with many of them in the Super 14.
"The Leeds match will be a strong test, with the players who do not start against Western Force set to get a run in that game, and then completing our pre-season with a training camp in Lille and a match against a quality team like Racing will set us up nicely for the start of the Guinness Premiership season."
Newcastle Falcons' pre-season schedule:
Fri, August 8: Western Force (Kingston Park, 20.00 - 19.00 GMT)
Sun, August 17: Leeds Carnegie (Headingley Carnegie, 13.00 - 12.00 GMT)
Sun, August 24: Racing Métro 92 (Stadium Nord Lille Métropole, 16.00 - 14.00 GMT)
