Newcastle v Exeter Friday 7.45

[fivepointer]

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Ben Redshaw, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Connor Doherty, 12 Sammy Arnold, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Ethan Grayson, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Richard Palframan, 4 Pedro Rubiolo, 5 John Hawkins, 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Luan de Bruin, 18 Murray McCallum, 19 Freddie Lockwood, 20 Adam Scott, 21 Joe Davis, 22 Alex Hearle, 23 Cameron Hutchison.

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Josh Hodge, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Olly Woodburn, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Paul Brown-Bampoe, 10 Harvey Skinner, 9 Sam Maunder; 1 Scott Sio, 2 Jack Yeandle (c), 3 Marcus Street, 4 Rusi Tuima, 5 Franco Molina, 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Richard Capstick, 8 Ross Vintcent

Replacements: 16 Jack Innard, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Josh Iosefa-Scott, 19 Christ Tshiunza, 20 Greg Fisilau, 21 Tom Cairns, 22 Will Haydon-Wood, 23 Ben Hammersley

[Puja]

Friday night game. Featuring the bottom two teams. That sounds like a recipe for excitement.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Its a big game for both teams but its hard to see it being a classic.

Slade not fit enough to have a run.

[FKAS]

Newcastle can't find a fit flyhalf and Exeter can't find a fit outside centre.

I expect Chiefs to gradually just wear down Falcons by beating them up, up front.

[FKAS]

Well how about that for a result. Stevenson Diamond gets the win earlier than we thought he would.

[Adam_P]

Falcons can thank me for putting Feyi-Waboso into my fantasy team and making him captain shortly before kick off for that win

[Banquo]

Exeter in a steep dive

[Which Tyler]

Exeter in a steep dive

My predictions thread isn't looking too clever so far:
I expected Exeter to build on a strong 2023/24 with experience in their kids, and climb up the table.
I expected Gloucester's Welsh halfbacks to be disinterested pensioners probably not even starting by the end of the season.
I expected Saracens to take a mid-table breather this season, as they adapt to live without Farrell or Vunipolae etc.
I also expected Ford's diminishing involvement with England, and the addition of Nayacalevu to see Sale rise up the table.

I currently expect to be rank last in the predictions thread this season.

[fivepointer]

Exeter's slide is quite hard to fathom. The squad is pretty much the same as last season and you would have expected to see some modest development.
They are weak at HB - Maunder is unbelievably ponderous - and are badly missing Slade and Jenkins, but several high profile players simply arent turning up.
Baxter has a considerable challenge on his hands.
But well done Newcastle. They and the league needed that.

[Oakboy]

Exeter were out-fought and out-thought. Newcastle won the kicking contest with a lively SH and a centre playing at FH. Exeter's kicking was awful. Newcastle ruled the breakdown, to a surprising extent. Maybe, experience of and bravery on the plastic pitch was a factor.

Exeter remain woeful at 9, 10, 12 though Hawkins was marginally more effective than in previous games. Doing the right thing at the right time seems not to be within their skill-set. They had sufficient quality ball to give Exeter's superb back-three enough chances to win the game but they failed to do so yet again.

[Epaminondas Pules]

My god what a horrific game of rugby that was. The last ten minutes were watchable but the rest was an utter shit fest. Fair play to Falcons for getting one over the line. Exeter just allowed themselves to get dragged into the mess rather than play their own game.