Ben Curry leads Sale Sharks for Newcastle Falcons trip

Adam Kyriacou
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Newcastle Falcons have stuck with a winning formula for Friday’s Premiership home game against Sale Sharks, retaining the same starting XV from last weekend’s opening-day victory at Bath.

The only change from the matchday 23 which earned a 19-12 triumph at the Rec comes on the bench, where Darren Barry has recovered from injury to take up a spot as second-row cover.

The last time Newcastle and Sale met was at St James’ Park in March 2019 when the Falcons ground out a 22-17 triumph in front of more than 27,000 supporters.

Parked last week

Insisting his players have not gone overboard in their reaction to last week’s result in their first competitive match for eight and a half months, director of rugby Dean Richards said: “It was great to finally have the opportunity of being back out there, but, like anything, you can’t rest on your laurels.

“The players all understand that, we’ve all parked last week now and everyone is looking forward to what we know is a massive game on Friday night against a very good Sale Sharks side. We’ve still got work to do on our game and nobody is getting carried away after one win.

“Last weekend has given us a huge amount of belief, but at the same time it’s a fine balance between that and being over-confident.

“You can’t over-react to a victory, just as you don’t over-react to a defeat – you just need to have this consistent understanding of what it takes to win each time you take the field.”

Meanwhile, Steve Diamond makes just one change to Sale’s starting XV with Jono Ross a late omission due to illness. The Sharks captain is replaced at blindside flanker by Jean-Luc du Preez, with James Phillips moving into the second-row in place of the Springbok.

Russian international Valery Morozov joins Akker van der Merwe and Coenie Oosthuizen in an identical front-row to that of the first game of the season.

Ben Curry leads the team from the flank alongside Jean-Luc and Dan du Preez.

The Sharks back division is in full force again, with World Cup-winning scrum-half Faf de Klerk and USA international AJ MacGinty keeping their roles at half-back, with Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Sam James providing plenty of options outside them.

After an impressive performance in round one, Simon Hammersley heads north to take on his boyhood club on the wing alongside Denny Solomona, with Luke James keeping the 15 shirt for Friday’s match.

Form: Newcastle Falcons became the third promoted team in the past four seasons to win its opening encounter in Gallagher Premiership Rugby. The Falcons have won their last eleven fixtures at Kingston Park in all competitions since Bristol beat them there in Premiership Rugby in May 2019. Sale Sharks’ only defeat in their last eight matches in all competitions (excluding the defaulted fixture against Worcester in Round 22 last season) was 22-37 at home to Bath in September. The Sharks have won their last three away games in Gallagher Premiership Rugby, their best run on the road since April 2014. Newcastle’s only defeat in their last four Premiership Rugby fixtures against Sale was 7-20 in Salford in October 2018. The Sharks have not been victorious at Kingston Park since May 2016.

The teams:

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Tom Penny, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Luther Burrell, 12 Toby Flood, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Michael Young (c), 8 Gary Graham, 7 Connor Collett, 6 Sean Robinson, 5 Marco Fuser, 4 Greg Peterson, 3 Logovi’i Mulipola, 2 George McGuigan, 1 Trevor Davison
Replacements: 16 Jamie Blamire, 17 Adam Brocklebank, 18 Mark Tampin, 19 Darren Barry, 20 Josh Basham, 21 Sam Stuart, 22 Joel Hodgson, 23 Pete Lucock

Sale Sharks: 15 Luke James, 14 Denny Solomona, 13 Sam James, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Simon Hammersley, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Ben Curry (c), 6 Jean-Luc du Preez, 5 James Phillips, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Valerey Morozov
Replacements: 16 Curtis Langdon, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 19 Matt Postlethwaite, 20 Sam Dugdale, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Rob du Preez, 23 Marland Yarde

Date: Friday, November 27
Venue: Kingston Park
Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson, Wayne Falla
Television match official: Trevor Fisher

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