Exeter v Newcastle, 11/12/2010 – The Road to Cardiff

As I mentioned in my report on the Leicester game, my brother was in London the other week. While we were playing on the Wii once all the flooring was done, he spotted a signed and framed Falcons team photo from 1999/2000 on the wall.

That being the period he used to come to the match, he pointed out some players “Ross Nesdale”, “Dave Walder, he looks geet little”. “That's Hugh Vyvyan isn't it?” No that's Richard Arnold, Vyvyan is on the other side of Stuart Grimes. “Closet Falcon, me” he ended with.

Perhaps rarely more so than this weekend, since he and his lass are going to a gig at the O2 on the weekend of the European quarter-finals. They will be hoping that the Falcons get through so I will be away that weekend and they can stay at my flat, saving the cost of a hotel room.

So it's Europe again this weekend and our second trip of the season, indeed ever, to Exeter, a week before the Chiefs come north for the first of three visits to KP this season.

Both sides are playing catch-up in Pool 3, having both lost to Montpellier before the French side's bonus point win over Bourgoin last night. However, if either of us are going to make it into the knockout stages, we would be slight favourites as we have to play Montpellier at home in January, while Exeter must still visit the Stade Yves du Manoir.

We need two wins over the Chiefs first though to keep us on the Road to Cardiff – the Cardiff City Stadium to be precise, with the Challenge Cup Final taking place there in May.

Obviously the Falcons have already lost to Exeter earlier this season in the Premiership, and since then our imminent hosts have gone from strength to strength in their first season amongst the elite. Following our loss at Sandy Park in September, the Chiefs lost their next three matches, away to Harlequins and Northampton as well as at home to London Irish in front of over 10,000 people.

After that though they pulled off one of the most amazing results of the season so far, a 9-23 win at Saracens thanks to tries from Ryan Davis and Brett Sturgess.

Davis, a transfer target for the Falcons this summer, has taken over the fly-half role in the absence of the talismanic Gareth Steenson, who is recovering from damaged knee ligaments and is likely to be out until the new year.

In the past three weeks Exeter have cemented seventh place in the Premiership thanks to tightish home wins over Leeds and Sale, 15-9 and 24-19 respectively, before a defeat at Wasps last week.

Our Falcons have put daylight between themselves and Leeds at the bottom of the table during the latest Premiership window, and with the postponement of last week's home meeting with Bath we have a game in hand against the Cardigans. We are still in danger though so the league has to remain the priority.

However, the Challenge Cup has to be respected too, considering it has the prize of a Heineken Cup place at the end of it. Two wins over Exeter in the coming fortnight would also give us valuable momentum ahead of the crunch game against Leeds on Boxing Day.

And lastly, I would like an exciting game and positive result to comment on from the BBC Radio Newcastle fanzone!

Alan Tait, who is up for the match (always a good sign) after a hard time in the snow, has apparently named an experimental side for tomorrow. There aren't a lot of players in this side I'm worried about, although Williams is only just coming back from fitness, and Henderson presumably needs to show us what we've been missing so far to win a permanent contract if he hasn't already. There are some decent reinforcements on the bench too in case things don't go according to plan:

15 Tom Catterick

14 Danny Williams

13 James Fitzpatrick

12 Andy Henderson

11 Michael Tait

10 Jeremy Manning

9 Micky Young

1 Micky Ward

2 Kieran Brookes

3 James Hall

4c James Hudson

5 Glen Townson

6 Filipo Levi

7 Will Welch

8 Mark Wilson

16 Matt Thompson

17 Grant Shiells

18 Darren Fearn

19 Brent Wilson

20 Ally Hogg

21 Joel Hodgson

22 Luke Fielden

23 Alex Tait

No official confirmation of the Exeter team on their offy either, but according to the Chiefs' Sportnetwork site this is the lineup we will face tomorrow:

15 Josh Matavesi

14 Mark Foster

13 Nic Sestaret

12 Sereli Naqelevuki

11 Matt Jess

10 Ryan Davis

9 Junior Poluleuligaga

1 Ben Moon

2 Whitehead

3 Hoani Tui

4 Chris Bentley

5 Dave Gannon

6 Chad Slade

7 David Ewers

8 Andy Miller

16 Jon Vickers

17 Ignacio Elosu

18 Ruaidhri Murphy

19 James Hanks

20 Michael Stupple

21 Garrick Cowley

22 Phil Dollman

23 Andy Higgins

Not too many recognisable players in there, so it seems both teams are giving squad players a chance. Hopefully it should be an open, interesting game.