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'Unrecognisable from last year': Newcastle name new-look team
Newcastle Falcons are set to unveil their new centre partnership of Connor Doherty and Sammy Arnold on Friday night against Bristol Bears in the opening round of the Gallagher Premiership at Kingston Park.
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The duo have been named to make their starting debuts for the club alongside openside flanker Tom Gordon.
Doherty is on a season-long loan from Sale Sharks, while Arnold arrived from Brive over the summer. Gordon, meanwhile, has crossed the border from Glasgow Warriors.
Yet more debuts could be made from the bench against the Bears, with loosehead Luan de Bruin named among the substitutes alongside 18-year-old scrumhalf Joe Davis.
Captain Callum Chick will also be making his 100th appearance when he leads his team out.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, they have picked up a number of injuries during pre-season, but director of rugby Steve Diamond is positive about the way his team shaped up over the summer.
“We’ve had one pre-season game at Sale where we made six line-breaks and scored six tries from them, so from an attacking point of view we were unrecognisable from last year,” Diamond said.
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“Alan Dickens coming in as a senior coach has made a big difference because he’s got a wealth of Premiership coaching experience on both sides of the ball, and even though we conceded a few tries we believe the defensive system we’ve put in place is the right one.
“We did take some attrition with a number of injuries, losing the likes of Cam Neild (arm), Kieran Wilkinson (knee) and Alex Hearle (pec), but that’s just the nature of rugby and it means an opportunity for someone else.”
Newcastle XV
15 Elliott Obatoyinbo
14 Adam Radwan
13 Connor Doherty
12 Sammy Arnold
11 Ben Stevenson
10 Brett Connon
9 Sam Stuart
1 Adam Brocklebank
2 Jamie Blamire
3 Richard Palframan
4 John Hawkins
5 Kiran McDonald
6 Philip van der Walt
7 Tom Gordon
8 Callum Chick (captain)
Replacements
16 Ollie Fletcher
17 Luan de Bruin
18 Murray McCallum
19 Freddie Lockwood
20 Adam Scott
21 Joe Davis
22 Louis Brown
23 Ben Redshaw
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