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Forgotten England blindside to make first appearance of the season

Mark Wilson /PA

Former England backrow Mark Wilson is set to make his first appearance of the season on Boxing Day against Sale Sharks.

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The Newcastle Falcons captain has been named on the bench for their Gallagher Premiership home game against Alex Sanderson’s Sale.

Wilson has missed the entire season so far with a knee injury. The Rugby World Cup finalist had a meniscus tear that was operated on in September.

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Earlier this year, England boss Jones had outlined his admiration for Wilson. “He is one of those players that didn’t have the escalator through the pathway. He had to fight his way all the way. He was in the academy, got kicked out of the academy, he went to university, played university rugby, so rugby means a lot to him and he is a fighter, mate, he’s a 100 per cent fighter.”

Elsewhere Mike Brown will make his 250th Gallagher Premiership appearance.

George Wacokecoke returns after an eye socket injury, while scrum-half Sam Stuart is expected to make his season debut after recuperating from a broken foot.

“Sale are a side which will play in the predominantly South African way,” said Director of Rugb Dean Richards. “They’ll exit off their nine and use their huge pack, so if we go too expansive then it might play into their hands a little bit.

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“It’s about understanding where to play the game, how to break them down and when to strike. That’s the important thing against a side like Sale, and they’re a good team.

“They’ve got a lot of quality within their group, they’ll come here fired-up for the occasion and ready to play their part in a big Boxing Day game which is normally full of blood and thunder.

“We just have to get our act together in terms of understanding how we want to play, where we want to play and the pace at which we want to play.”

“Having a home game on Boxing Day is always a bonus, and is one of the first things that players and supporters look out for whenever the fixtures come out in the summer. I was brought up playing rugby on Boxing Day, and it was always a big fixture when I was at Leicester and we used to host the Barbarians.

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“I obviously played during the amateur times and probably indulged just a little bit more than the professional players of the current era in terms of tucking into the Christmas pudding and having a few beers!”

NEWCASTLE FALCONS: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Penny, 13 George Wacokecoke, 12 Pete Lucock, 11 Adam Radwan, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 George McGuigan, 3 Trevor Davison, 4 Greg Peterson, 5 Sean Robinson, 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Connor Collett, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

REPLACEMENTS: 16 Robbie Smith, 17 Kyle Cooper, 18 Mark Tampin, 19 Gary Graham, 20 Mark Wilson, 21 Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti, 22 Joel Hodgson, 23 Will Haydon-Wood.

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Erin 1043 days ago

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Here is I started.…………… 𝐖𝐰𝐰.𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟𝟐𝟓.𝐜𝐨𝐦

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AM 43 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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