HE might have helped rack up 45 points against Albi already this season, but Newcastle Falcons flanker Josh Afu is expecting the French side to provide a much stiffer test on home soil tonight.
Newcastle play their penultimate Amlin Challenge Cup group game in the Stade Municipal knowing that, with a home game against minnows Petrarca Padova to come next Friday, a win will effectively guarantee their progress to the competition’s quarter-finals stage.
Falcons will start as firm favourites, having already thrashed Albi 45-3 at Kingston Park in October.
But with French sides having a deserved reputation as notoriously poor travellers, Afu is predicting a much tougher examination tonight.
“Albi showed over here that they are a very big side, and despite the scoreline being heavily in our favour that day, we know there is still a massive physical challenge to be met over there,” said Afu, who played the first 56 minutes of October’s seven-try rout.
“Any French team at home is going to be a battle, and the onus is really on us to meet them head on in the physicality stakes. From there, we can look to hopefully move them around the field a little bit with our pace and movement, but it all starts up front and the win at Kingston Park will mean nothing this time around.”
With last weekend’s scheduled home game against Gloucester having been postponed, Newcastle have not played since recording a 12-6 win at London Wasps at the start of the month.
It was arguably Falcons’ most impressive display of the campaign, with the pack in particular producing a magnificent effort to starve Wasps’ attackers of the ball.
The North-Easterners would have preferred to have carried that form straight into the Gloucester game, but Afu admits the enforced break has had its benefits.
“I suppose it came as a blessing in disguise because we have had another week to go back to the drawing board and improve on what was a generally good performance down,” said the Tongan back rower.
“A lot of the boys have been carrying niggles here and there, so it allowed us to recharge the batteries.”
Director of rugby Steve Bates has made six changes to the side that won at Adams Park. Matt Thompson makes his first Falcons start at tighthead prop, having switched positions from hooker this season.
Laurence Ovens replaces the injured Jon Golding at loose-head, with Mark Sorenson replacing James Hudson in the second row.
A fit-again Micky Young celebrates his England Saxons selection by returning at scrum-half, while Yorkshire duo Danny Williams and Tom Biggs start on the flanks, with Gcobani Bobo shifting inside to replace centre Rob Vickerman.
“From the videos of Albi’s game at home to Brive last weekend, it looks like the weather and the pitch may not necessarily be conducive to the way we want to play,”
said Bates. “But hopefully we have learned a few lessons from the recent Leeds game about coping in those sort of conditions.”
NEWCASTLE FALCONS (vs Albi): Tait, Williams, Bobo, Tu’ipulotu, Biggs, Gopperth, Young; Ovens, Vickers, Thompson, Swinson, Sorenson, Afu, Wilson, Levi.
Replacements: Walker, Hayman, Ward, Hudson, Balding, Pilgrim, Miller, Vickerman.
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