With Mark Jones now fully established as our Head Coach and off the back of a pretty successful Christmas derby period with a win and a draw, attention now turns to the EPCR Challenge Cup and the visit of the Newcastle Falcons. The Falcons are not having a great season and currently sit bottom of the Gallagher Premiership (P9, W2, L7 and on 8 points) and have lost both of their opening Challenge Cup games (to Pau and Dragons).
The Falcons have named very similar teams for their last 4 games (lost three and playing Quins on Jan 3rd) so they might make some changes to their line up but they could still qualify for the knockout with 10 points. However that seems unlikely given their final group match is against Montpellier.
I think Mark Jones will look to name a similar squad to that which drew at Cardiff on New Year's Day but we will likely be without James Fender given his red card last time out. Our 10 day turnaround will likely be beneficial compared to their 8 day turnaround.
Potential Squad
G Thomas G Phillips
S Parry L Lloyd
T Botha R Henry
J Ratti W Griffiths/W Spencer J Fender
M Morris M Morse J Morgan J Tipuric
RMW K Hardy
D Edwards J Walsh
K Giles D Kasende
K Williams O Watkin E Boshoff
I Hopkins/M Nagy
If on same points is it points difference overall or number of tries scored ? The whole completion is complex and flawed but delighted to move through.