NEWCASTLE Falcons have the opportunity to play some relaxed rugby over the next two weeks as they take on Italian club Treviso in the Parker Pen Challenge Cup.

While this may well help them return to winning ways following a run of five Premiership defeats, few tears will be shed if they are knocked out of Europe's second tier competition.

Premiership survival has now become the sole priority and the prospect of two more European weekends in mid-January - probably against Saracens - might be seen as a distraction.

However, it is not in Rob Andrew's nature to send a team out to lose, although he may take the opportunity to further the experience of academy players such as Teessider Steve Jones.

The former Middlesbrough fly half recently played for North Under 21s against France West along with Ben Woods, who is also in today's squad.

Jones made his only senior appearance to date on the wing in the defeat at Harlequins two months ago.

While Newcastle disposed of Grenoble, Treviso won home and away against Castres in the first round and will be confident of following up their success against the Falcons two years ago, when the Italians won 28-15 at home and lost 30-19 at Kingston Park.

There is a fair amount of disquiet at Kingston Park at the moment about the way the Premiership is being run, with coach Steve Bates observing in last week's programme: "In the last two weeks we have seen with absolute clarity the pointlessness of the Premiership in its present form.

"It is increasingly obvious that the wage cap is widely abused and might as well be disbanded. There are teams in the league that support squads of 35-38 players and contain a significant number of experienced internationals."

It seems obvious that Newcastle have had to adopt an "if you can't beat, join 'em" philosophy with their recent signing of four overseas players and the promise of more to come.

It is now hoped that the biggest signing, South African lock Mark Andrews, will arrive in time for the match at Sale on Friday, January 3, five days after the Falcons visit London Irish.

But as Sale are second and Irish are fighting tooth and nail to get out of trouble themselves, it is asking a lot to win either of those games.

The Parker Pen quarter-finals fill the next two weekends after the Sale match, but as the new recruits will not be eligible the time might be better spent on the training field preparing for the survival battle.

In these circumstances talk of Falcons players being loaned out goes on to the back burner, although there is apparently still a chance that a couple might go to Darlington Mowden Park after the Treviso games.

Hooker Nick Makin has been mentioned as a possibility, but Mowden could have done with him now, with Danny Brown starting a three-week suspension today.

Matt Hall returns for the National Three North match at home to Dudley Kingswinford, where Mowden suffered one of several very narrow defeats three months ago.

They again include Tony Irwin at blind side as he has been told he can do the fused bones in his heel no damage prior to his operation later this month.

Back row pair Jonny Boatman and Owen Hopley provide cover on the bench, while John Hutchinson has a run in the seconds at Durham City following his recovery from illness.

Scrum half Richard Holbrough, winger Steve Jones and centre Matt Howland return after injury for a match Mowden cannot afford to lose.

All the signs are that four will again be relegated and Mowden are four points adrift of the fifth bottom club.

One consolation is that they still have to play all the bottom three - Scunthorpe, Broadstreet and Bedford Athletic - home and away.

Darlington could move into second place in North One if they win away to third bottom Huddersfield. After a narrow win against Birkenhead Park last week, they are hoping the Merseysiders do them a favour by winning at home to second-placed Macclesfield, while another interesting clash sees leaders Cleckheaton visit Chester.

Darlington have Kieron Thompson back at full back and retain Paul Beattie on the wing as Frankie Coulson has a dead leg. Lock Paul Radford makes his comeback in the seconds at home to Harrogate.

At the other end of the table West Hartlepool visit the only team below them, Sandal. West player-coach John Stabler threatened to hang up his boots after last week's home defeat by Huddersfield, but has named himself in an unchanged line-up.

Stockton are unchanged away to second-placed Sheffield in North Two East, but hope to improve on last week's disappointing display in the home defeat by Redcar.

Horden entertain Alnwick and will be up against fly half Alan Moses, who has returned to his old club from Tynedale.

* Durham lost both their Schools 16 group matches against Yorkshire. A try by Barnard Castle's Ross Batty kept them in the A game at Hartlepool Rovers, before Yorkshire scored two late tries to win 18-5, while Durham lost the B game 33-7 at Hartlepool.