Newcastle vs Northampton - Friday 7.45pm

[Puja]

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Alex Hearle, 13 Connor Doherty, 12 Max Clark, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart, 8 Callum Chick (c), 7 Cameron Neild, 6 Freddie Lockwood, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 4 John Hawkins, 3 Murray McCallum, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Adam Brocklebank
Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Micky Rewcastle, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Finn Baker, 20 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 21 Max Pepper, 22 Sammy Arnold, 23 Oli Spencer

Northampton Saints: 15 James Ramm, 14 Tom Litchfield, 13 Burger Odendaal (c), 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Tom Seabrook, 10 Charlie Savala, 9 Tom James, 8 Iakopo Mapu, 7 Tom Pearson, 6 Angus Scott-Young, 5 Tom Lockett, 4 Chunya Munga, 3 Luke Green, 2 Craig Wright, 1 Tom West
Replacements: 16 Henry Walker, 17 Tarek Haffar, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Temo Mayanavanua, 20 Juarno Augustus, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Will Glister

Venue: Kingston Park
Kick-off: 19:45 BST (18:45 GMT)
Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant Referees: Hamish Smales, James Clarke
TMO: Andrew Jackson

[Puja]

Newcastle being given every chance by Saints to close the gap on Exeter. Saints clearly only thinking about the semi-final for the rest of the season.

Puja

[FKAS]

Dunno Saints do have a loaded bench should they need/want impact. Falcons on the other hand looks down to the bare bones again.

[Banquo]

yay so we lose Glister again this week

[Mellsblue]

yay so we lose Glister again this week

You can’t polish a turd and you can’t role Glister on it

[Banquo]

yay so we lose Glister again this week

You can’t polish a turd and you can’t role Glister on it

#roll

[Epaminondas Pules]

yay so we lose Glister again this week

He might actually make it onto the pitch this time too.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Potential Prem debut for Finn Baker, which is good to see. And more game time for Rewcastle. Two decent young prospects coming out of the darkness in Newcastle.

[Danno]

We have too many Finns/Fins on the scene for my poor brain

[Adam_P]

Picking up injuries on this plastic pitch. Pearson off and now F Smith limping (and Savala, but that didn't seem at all pitch related)

[Oakboy]

Luke Pearce is a superb ref.

Glister looks really useful.

Horrible pitch.

[Oakboy]

Where's McParland? How can James be ahead of him?

[Epaminondas Pules]

Where's McParland? How can James be ahead of him?

Injured. Had shoulder operation in Feb after fucking it in U20s duty.

[Oakboy]

Where's McParland? How can James be ahead of him?

Injured. Had shoulder operation in Feb after fucking it in U20s duty.

Ah, shame. Thanks for the info.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Luke Pearce is a superb ref.

Glister looks really useful.

Horrible pitch.

He looked really good through age grade. Most people got super excited by Cousins, who seemed more of a one trick pony, whilst Glister had a bit more to his game. Nice lad too. Part of a sensational year group that graduated into Saints professional terms.

[Banquo]

Luke Pearce is a superb ref.

Glister looks really useful.

Horrible pitch.

He looked really good through age grade. Most people got super excited by Cousins, who seemed more of a one trick pony, whilst Glister had a bit more to his game. Nice lad too. Part of a sensational year group that graduated into Saints professional terms.

top lad, nice parents, been great for us....needs game time and not be dicked about by saints/bedford.

[Beasties]

McCallum running the show.

[Captainhaircut]

I thought Blamire was excellent tonight. He often is despite Falcons getting hammered most weeks.

Feel like he could really kick on at Leicester and become a real force. You don’t get many 18 stone hookers with great hands and good pace.

[fivepointer]

Thought Glister had a very assured game. Didnt look at all out of place.

Entertaining game. Newcastle played pretty well and scored some good tries. There's a lot to like about Blamire. I'm sure playing for Newcastle has gone against him for England as he does the basics well and is a handful in the loose.

[Scrumhead]

I thought Blamire was excellent tonight. He often is despite Falcons getting hammered most weeks.

Feel like he could really kick on at Leicester and become a real force. You don’t get many 18 stone hookers with great hands and good pace.

Yeah. Feels like he’s been around forever but he’s only 27 so it’ll be interesting to see how the Tigers move influences his prospects.

[twitchy]

Newcastle are a good team, they just keep getting asset stripped. It must be so frustrating.

[FKAS]

I thought Blamire was excellent tonight. He often is despite Falcons getting hammered most weeks.

Feel like he could really kick on at Leicester and become a real force. You don’t get many 18 stone hookers with great hands and good pace.

Yeah. Feels like he’s been around forever but he’s only 27 so it’ll be interesting to see how the Tigers move influences his prospects.

If he can just increase the accuracy of his throwing and produce those quality performances consistently then Statistical Ballthrow will want him back with England. LCD and George aren't getting any younger.

[Captainhaircut]

Hooker a strange position for England now.

It’s a concern in that George and LCD are the only ones with any real caps with George in particular nearing the end.

However we have loads of potential options that could all do a job at test level. Blamire, Langdon, Oghre and Dan could all develop into excellent test players plus Blake and Jibulu have big potential. Kepu could be ready in the next 2 or 3 years too.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Potential Prem debut for Finn Baker, which is good to see. And more game time for Rewcastle. Two decent young prospects coming out of the darkness in Newcastle.

Both of whom were left on the bench to gather splinters! Criminally in Rewcastle’s case as Brocklebank was being pinged off the park in the second half at scrum time.