NEWCASTLE Falcons will wait until an hour before tonight's 7.45 kick-off at Northampton before deciding whether joint captains Jonny Wilkinson and Ian Peel will be on the bench.

In their continued absence after injury, former Wales skipper Colin Charvis takes over the captaincy from Jamie Noon, but the main surprise is that Wilkinson's elder brother, Mark, comes in at fly half for Dave Walder.

Michael Stephenson regains his place on the left wing from Mathew Tait, James Grindal comes in at scrum half, and Galo Alvares Quinones replaces Micky Ward, with David Wilson switching to tight head.

The final change sees hooker Matt Thompson come in for Andy Long, and a major task for club owner Dave Thompson's son will be do his bit to ensure an improved line-out performance.

"The line-outs were the main problem, both defensively and in attack, when we lost to Worcester last Sunday," he said. "We have done a lot of work to rectify it.

"Playing on Sunday and Friday makes it a pretty short week from a training point of view, but we were straight back into it and have done some pretty physical stuff.

"From what was said after Sunday's game anything less than total concentration will not be tolerated.

"Northampton have not been hitting form, but they are a very dangerous team and we are under no illusions about the fact it will be a tough game."

Charvis was happy to get through 70 minutes - he spent ten in the sin-bin - on his comeback from a three-month absence on Sunday.

"It's the longest I have been out for four or five years and it has been very frustrating," he said.

"It has been easier to be away from Wales because they have done well, whereas Newcastle have not achieved as much as we had hoped.

"We will be putting in as much as we can between now and the end of the season. We are all desperate to qualify for Europe again."