Radwan returns for Newcastle Falcons Sale trip

Adam Radwan returns for Newcastle Falcons on Friday night when they make the Gallagher Premiership Derby Weekend trip to Sale Sharks.

The winger comes in as one of four changes to the Falcons’ line-up, with Argentina lock Pedro Rubiolo in from the start and Cameron Hutchison and Oli Spencer forming a new-look centre pairing.

On the bench there could be a Newcastle debut for ex-Sale back Jack Metcalf, with Falcons boss Steve Diamond returning to the club where he spent more than 20 years as a player and director of rugby.

“Pedro Rubiolo comes back in to start, and he’ll add something to the forward pack when you consider he’s been a regular starter in the Rugby Championship,” said Diamond.

“He’s helped Argentina to beat New Zealand, Australia and South Africa over the last couple of months, and he’s really keen to get straight back in for us after Kiran McDonald took a knock to the head against Leicester.

“Sammy Arnold is out with a shoulder knock and Ben Redshaw picked up a short-term ankle injury so we’ve re-modelled the back line a little, but Adam Radwan is back from the head knock he took down at Harlequins.

“Sale are a big, physical side, and we need to be as error-free as we can. They’ll look to kick to the corners with their big pack, the Curry boys will be having a pop round the field and we’ve got to improve dramatically from last week to be competitive. That’s all I’m asking for.”

Referencing last Saturday’s home loss to Leicester Tigers, Diamond added: “We’d come off the back of games against Bristol and Harlequins where they play a very different style to Leicester, which hid some of our deficiencies, and we as a coaching group have taken responsibility for that.

“We’ve simplified things, we’ve got a very clear plan but of course Sale are a quality side and it’ll be a huge challenge over there.

“Nobody is happy about the performance last week and we’ve made changes accordingly in terms of how we’ll play, but having watched it back I still think the lads’ attitude was where it should be. That’s one thing you can always say about this group, and there’s nobody hiding.

“We played too much in the middle of the field and coughed up possession to put ourselves under pressure, and we had too many of our tight-five forwards passing rather than carrying the ball. We’ve addressed that during the week, and myself and the coaching group take the bulk of the responsibility for that not being right last time out.

“All we ask the players is that we’re competitive, and how we define that is by being within seven points of the opposition with 20 minutes to go. If we do that we’ve got a chance to win games, and if we don’t win games we take bonus points.

“In fairness to the players their reaction to the Leicester game has been really good, and they’re doing all the right things during the week. I know people probably wouldn’t think it to look at the league table but there’s actually a load of positives around this group, and I don’t feel like we’re too far away when we get our own stuff right.

“The thing we need to add is belief, and the only way you get that is by winning or being really close in games, which is where we need to get to. But things like fitness, team spirit, attitude, culture, work rate and all those other buzz words – it’s here in abundance. There’s nobody whingeing behind the scenes or anything like that.

“It’s just about getting one of these games across the line so we can get the momentum going.”

Newcastle Falcons team v Sale Sharks (Friday, Salford Community Stadium, 7.45pm, live on TNT Sports)

15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Oli Spencer, 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Ethan Grayson, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Richard Palframan, 4 Pedro Rubiolo, 5 John Hawkins, 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 Jack Metcalf, 23 Louis Brown.

Not available for selection: Sammy Arnold, Eduardo Bello, Tim Cardall, Brett Connon, Sebastian de Chaves, Connor Doherty, Alex Hearle, Kiran McDonald, Cameron Neild, Ben Redshaw, Kieran Wilkinson.

Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Will Addison, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Arron Reed, 10 Rob du Preez, 9 Gus Warr; 1 Si McIntyre, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 James Harper, 4 Ben Bamber, 5 Hyron Andrews, 6 Ernst van Rhyn, 7 Ben Curry (captain), 8 Tom Curry.

Replacements: 16 Ethan Caine, 17 Tumy Onasanya, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Josh Beaumont, 20 Dan du Preez, 21 Nye Thomas, 22 Tom Curtis, 23 Sam Dugdale.

Referee: Karl Dickson.