DEAN RICHARDS will hand Carlo del Favo and Mark Wilson their first starts of the season as Newcastle Falcons look to maintain their perfect start to the campaign this evening.

Falcons host Leeds Carnegie at Kingston Park (8pm) in what will be the closest thing to a derby for the Championship leaders, who are aiming to make it five wins in five.

Italian international del Fava returns to the second-row after a back injury, while Wilson gets the nod in the back-row following stints on the bench.

Richards sticks with the same backline that defeated Cornish Pirates 25-3 at The Mennaye Field last weekend, with youngster Joel Hodgson keeping his place at fly-half.

Hodgson partners Rory Lawson at half-back with Jimmy Gopperth continuing at full-back.

Director of rugby Richards said: "Everything has been fine in terms of preparations as we travelled back on Monday and we are in good shape.

"Of course the weather hasn't been great this week but we trained on Tuesday at Druid Park so in that respect, again our preparations have not been hampered at all.

"Northumbria University were kind enough to offer their facilities, but the traffic wasn't great around the city so we used Druid."

FALCONS: Gopperth, Fielden, Crockett, Tu'ipulotu, Catterick, Hodgson; Golding, Vickers, Tomaszczyk, del Fava, Hudson, Wilson, Mayhew, Hogg. Replacements: Thompson, Hall, MacLeod, Tu'ifua, Pasqualin, Tait, Helleur.