RELYING on the boot of Jonny Wilkinson will not be enough for Newcastle in their European Shield group decider at home to Benetton Treviso tomorrow.

To oust the Italians from top spot, the Falcons must win by a two-try margin, or by one try plus an overall margin of more than 13 points.

Competition rules state that where two teams finish level, the winners will be decided on the outcome of the two matches between them, with tries coming first.

Treviso beat the Falcons 28-15 in Italy, scoring three tries to two, and the fact that Newcastle have much the better overall points difference, courtesy of their 99-8 home win against Cross Keys, is irrelevant.

They visit the Welsh club next week in their final group game, with the quarter-finals the weekend after. Victory at Cross Keys ought to be a formality and it's tomorrow's game which holds the key to securing a home tie in the last eight.

There can be no relaxing as in last week's Tetley's Bitter Cup win against Sale, when the try count finished 3-3 and Wilkinson's six penalties made the difference.

With England squad man Jamie Noon ruled out by his ankle problem, Liam Botham returns at centre and the only other change is at prop, where Micky Ward will start in place of Ian Peel.

l Darlington Mowden Park have left player-coach Kevan Oliphant on the bench for their North One match at Middlesbrough in order to take a look at Jonny Golightly in his favourite No 10 shirt.

The former Durham School and West Hartlepool player appeared at full back last week, but with tough games against Driffield, Chester and Blaydon coming up Mowden want to be sure they have a capable deputy should anything befall Oliphant.

Kevin McCallum reverts to full back, with Steve Jones back on the wing against the club he left two months ago.

Of Mowden's other former Boro players, Shaun Cassidy will again be on the bench if he has recovered from a dead leg and Jason Malcolm will be at lock, with his brother Jonathan on Boro's wing.

The hosts welcome back hooker Ben Horton and prop Dale Sawdon, who played for the Durham county side last season ahead of Mowden's Dave Sinclair. John Dixon has recovered from his leg operation and will be back on the bench.

Darlington's player-coach Phil Lancaster returns in place of Joe Osleton for the home game against Goole in North Two East.

It's the first in a run of three games against other top-four teams for Darlington, who visit Huddersfield and Halifax in the next two weeks.

Winger Paul Beattie is back after being unavailable for last week's trip to Old Crossleyans, when Tony Taylor came in as a late replacement.

Taylor is one of four Darlington players, along with Dan Miller, Richard Snowball and Russell Heywood, in the Durham Under-20s squad, who are visiting Blackwell Meadows tomorrow (2.15) for a match against Darlington's Development XV.

Darlington are also staging a ladies' match tomorrow (1pm), when Northallerton are the visitors.

l Newcastle Falcons are offering return coach travel to Twickenham for the Tetley's Bitter Cup final on February 24 at £1 a head.

Helped by sponsorship from Mi Services and Northern Rock, they are making the special offer to anyone who books tickets for the final against Harlequins through the Falcons' ticket hotline (0191 214 2800).

Tetley's fear that the final might be watched by the smallest crowd for a Twickenham final since Harlequins played Bristol before 37,000 in 1988.

Bringing the final forward from the end of the season to February, sandwiched between two Six Nations Championship weekends, seems certain to affect the crowd.

Former Scotland fly half Craig Chalmers is seeking to extend his loan spell at Harlequins so he can play in the final.

Chalmers, 32, is on loan from Glasgow Caledonians until the end of this month