NEWCASTLE'S Tom May and London Irish's Mike Catt will be making their 100th Premiership appearances when the teams meet at the Madejski Stadium tomorrow.

But there is likely to be a greater focus on 18-year-old Mathew Tait, making his fifth Premiership start for the Falcons in place of Michael Stephenson on the left wing.

The Barnard Castle School product has scored in three of his four home games this season and had a hand in both the tries which secured victory against Leeds last week after going on for Stephenson for the last 20 minutes.

Stephenson has been nursing a dead leg but will be on the bench and Tait said: "Other people's misfortunes have given me a few games and hopefully I have done all right.

"It's fantastic - everything I thought it would be. I'm getting used to the training every day but I'm still tired a lot so my body is still adapting.

"I'm continuing to work on my skills and feel comfortable with that side of things. But I'm just getting used to having massive people running at me all the time.

"It's a privilege to be in the same team as guys like Matt Burke, who has been a huge help. He is always talking to me in training and in games and we have a laugh as well.

"Given a choice I would probably prefer to play at centre, but I'm happy to play anywhere."

Tait, who has moved from the family home in Wolsingham to live in a flat near St James' Park, scored a try on his debut at home to London Irish last April.

But he expects them to be tough to break down tomorrow, saying: "Their defence is different from what we are used to and we know they will be in our faces all the time so we have been working on that this week."

Centre Mark Mayerhofler will be on the bench after being out for eight weeks with a fractured fibula, but Joe Shaw suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury last week and is again sidelined.

Scrum half Hall Charlton returns after sitting on the England bench last week and lock Luke Gross is back after completing his four-week suspension picked up in the Heineken Cup win at Newport. He replaces Andy Buist.

* Falcons' home match against Gloucester on February 27 will kick off at 1.15, with the England v Ireland match to be shown live in the Kingston Park bars afterwards.