London Irish v Newcastle Falcons: Aviva Premiership preview
Last Updated: 27/03/15 2:38pm
London Irish take on Newcastle at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday hoping to close the gap to Gloucester in eighth and put some distance between themselves and the Falcons.
A win at bottom club London Welsh is Irish’s only victory in their last six games and they lost to Newcastle when they met in the LV= Cup last month.
Glenn Delaney will be hoping his side can turn the tables this weekend and be inspired to entertain the crowd for this St Patrick’s Day Party fixture.
Irish will be buoyed by the return of captain George Skivington after injury and Blair Cowan following his Six Nations exploits with Scotland.
Newcastle make three changes with Kieran Brookes back from international duty with England to take his place in the front row and Noah Cato and Gonzalo Tiesi have recovered from injuries to line up among the backs.
Josh Furno is available again after representing Italy and starts on the bench where he will be joined by Juan Pablo Orlandi who missed the recent match with Leicester with a pectoral injury.
The Falcons are searching for their first victory since the LV= Cup triumph over Irish in February.
London Irish: 15 Andrew Fenby, 14 Alex Lewington, 13 Eoin Griffin, 12 Eamonn Sheridan, 11 Tom Fowlie, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Scott Steele; 1 Tom Court, 2 David Paice, 3 Halani Aulika, 4 George Skivington (c), 5 Nic Rouse, 6 Conor Gilsenan, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Tom Guest.
Replacements: 16 Jimmy Stevens, 17 Matt Parr, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Jebb Sinclair, 20 Luke Narraway, 21 Darren Allinson, 22 Chris Noakes, 23 Topsy Ojo.
Newcastle Falcons: 15 Alex Tait, 14 Noah Cato, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Adam Powell, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Tom Catterick, 9 Ruki Tipuna; 1 Rob Vickers, 2 Scott Lawson, 3 Kieran Brookes, 4 Kane Thompson, 5 Dom Barrow, 6 Richard Mayhew, 7 Will Welch (c), 8 Mark Wilson.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Alex Rogers, 18 Juan Orlandi, 19 Josh Furno, 20 Andy Saull, 21 Andy Davies, 22 Juan Socino, 23 Chris Harris.
