16 September 2005
Issued on behalf of Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints RFU Academy No 8 Mark Easter has shot straight into the starting line-up for Saturday's sell-out game against Newcastle Falcons after signing his club contract just two weeks ago.
The 22-year-old, who was born in Mbabane in Swaziland, will take the place of Daniel Browne for Saints' first home game of the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP.
Browne suffered a knee strain during last weekend's win against Bath and is likely to be out of action for between four and six weeks. John Rudd will also miss Saturday's live Sky game due to a foot strain.
Director of rugby Budge Pountney said: "Losing Daniel is a real blow. He has been playing well for us and is one of our more experienced players. However, it gives a great chance to Mark Easter to step in to prove his worth. Mark is another English academy player and that makes it three that have played in the Premiership this year - that's not bad for three games. We are really proud of academy boys."
Easter, who signed to Saints from Nottingham RFC, said: "I only signed a couple of weeks ago and it's all happened really quickly. I did not expect this opportunity to come up so early because we have got such a strong back-row and a strong squad, but unfortunately the injury to Dan Browne means I can try to fill his shoes."
Saturday's match will be the first game that many supporters will get to see Saints' new signings in action, including Carlos Spencer.
He said: "Last week was a huge step up from the week before. It gave a big confidence boost to the guys coming into the first home game. I am sure this team will do some wonderful things but it's a long season and first up we need to show sides that it will not be easy to come to Franklin's Gardens."
However, Saints will come up against two of the most powerful forwards in the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP in Colin Charvis and Owen Finegan - both well know to Spencer.
"They are two great players with a lot of experience. We have to keep on top of them, but as long as we focus on what we are trying to achieve, we will be fine. Newcastle are coming here on the back of two losses and they are a very tough side. We need to make sure they leave here three-zip (In terms of wins)."
Spencer, considered one of the more entertaining players in the game, added: "Saturday is all about winning. The crowd will be entertained if we win. But if we can play entertaining rugby and win, that would be even better!"
Northampton Saints
15 BRUCE REIHANA (capt)
14 SEAN LAMONT
13 Jon Clarke
12 Seamus Mallon
11 BEN COHEN
10 CARLOS SPENCER
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 Dylan Hartley
3 Brett Sturgess
4 Matt Lord
5 Damien Browne
6 Mark Soden
7 Darren Fox
8 Mark Easter
16 STEVE THOMPSON
17 Chris Budgen
18 Alex Rae
19 Ben Lewitt
20 Johnny Howard
21 Rhodri Davies
22 Luke Myring
Issued on behalf of Newcastle Falcons
Newcastle Falcons have made five changes, plus one positional switch, ahead of Saturday's GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP trip to Northampton Saints (kick-off 2.45pm).
In the front row Andy Long replaces Matt Thompson at hooker due to a rib injury, while Geoff Parling comes in for Stuart Grimes at second row.
A neck injury to Phil Dowson sees captain Colin Charvis switch back to No.8, while Owen Finegan makes his first Premiership start in place of Mike McCarthy and Ben Woods comes in at openside after 18 months out with a badly broken leg.
There is one change in the backs as Mathew Tait replaces the injured Anthony Elliott, who took a bang to the shoulder in Sunday's 16-14 defeat to Bristol.
Director of rugby, Rob Andrew, said ahead of the game: "In terms of importance this Saturday isn't any more significant after two defeats, because all games in this league are important.
"Nothing in sport is ever more important than the next game, and the players have had that drummed in to them after last week's match, which they thought they would win just by turning up.
"We all know in sport that if you turn up and don't do the work, invariably you lose. It's a lesson that's as old as the hills, but some of our players have learnt it the hard way.
"You can't guarantee victory in this game, but you can guarantee a level of performance which gives you a good chance of victory, and we just didn't do that last weekend.
"Against Sale in the opening week you can almost accept the defeat because we played fantastically well and apart from a couple of errors we could have won away to one of the best teams in the Premiership, but against Bristol the performance was just weak, for want of a better word."
Assessing the fallout after the Bristol loss, he added: "We've looked at it, learnt our lesson and now we are just rolling our sleeves up and getting on with it.
"There will be no complacency this week, and as coaches we have to look at ourselves and say did we allow that to creep in last week? Did we do everything we could to remove enough of the complacency, and being brutally honest we would have to say clearly we didn't.
"You have to look at yourself in with everything else, and I can assure you we are doing that as a club and as a coaching team so that it doesn't happen again. You try and cover everything in your preparation, but judging from the performance we as a coaching team have learnt a lot as well.
"Having watched the tapes it is clear that we should still have won the game despite being appalling on the day, and Bristol must have thought it was Christmas morning with the gifts we gave them.
"But despite what happened last weekend we are still a good side, and we have strong belief that we can beat teams."
Welcoming back openside flanker Ben Woods in the week that he lost Phil Dowson to a neck injury, Andrew stated: "I've said for a few years now it's a revolving door when it comes to injuries.
"It's inevitable that you will lose bodies during the season, it's just a case of whether or not you have enough coming back through the revolving door when you lose players that is the key.
"This week we have lost Cory Harris and Dowson, but we have Finegan and Woods coming back, so we can just about cope with that. A season is a long time though, and it's difficult keeping so many balls in the air at the same time.
"The success of your season is often defined by when that door revolves, how many come out and how many go in. If you can keep that equation just about even then you've got a chance."
Praising the grit and determination of Premiership debutant Woods, Andrew said: "Ben has had a terrible 18 months, and most people have no idea how hard he has worked and the effort that has gone in to his rehabilitation from a really horrendous leg break.
"For him to get back on to a rugby pitch at all is mind blowing because it could have quite easily been a career-ending injury, so every single person who works at the club and has seen his determination every day in rehab for a year-and-a-half is thrilled for him.
"He was in the Phil Dowson class at the time he suffered the injury, he was one of England Under-21s' best players and he was seriously pushing for a first team place.
"He came on in Japan for his comeback, scored a try with his first touch of the ball, and he has scored four times in two Development Team games since, so while we ideally might have liked to ease him in gradually to first team rugby we do believe he is strong enough physically and mentally and merits his start this weekend."
Looking to opponents Northampton, he said: "I think they are still in the process of finding their feet a little bit.
"They lost a lot of games at home last season, so there will be a bit of tension there for the fans and the players.
"They've got a lot of new players in, they got thumped against Leicester but did win at Bath in what was not a very good game from either side, so if we can achieve the level of performance we did at Sale we believe we can cause them problems.
"I've been confident all pre-season that we can compete with anybody, and I still firmly believe it."
Saturday's game will be shown live on the big screen at Kingston Park, with food and drinks available throughout.
Newcastle Falcons team to face Northampton Saints:
15 Matthew Burke
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon
12 Mark Mayerhofler
11 Mathew Tait
10 Dave Walder
9 Hall Charlton
1 Micky Ward
2 Andy Long
3 Robbie Morris
4 Andy Perry
5 Geoff Parling
6 Owen Finegan
7 Ben Woods
8 Colin Charvis (captain)
Replacements:
David Wilson
Stuart Mackie
Tino Paoletti
Mike McCarthy
Stuart Grimes
James Grindal
Toby Flood
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