Wilkinson To Start Season Fit

Newcastle Falcons

Johnny Wilkinson, the England and Newcastle fly half, is expected to play in the first match of the Guinness Premiership.  He had surgery over the summer to repair cartilage n his shoulder, but should be fit to play Sale in the Falcons first fixture of the season on September 7th.

This should be good news for the Newcastle Falcons, as they have lost a couple of their best players - the England backs Tony Flood and Matthew Tait, and have not brought in players of the same quality as replacements.

Due to the new agreement between clubs and RFU that lets England have the players for more days each year, Steve Bates, Director of Rugby at Newcastle claims that  “Certainly part of our strategy was that we could not afford to have four guys in a backline that were going to be missing for 11 games.”  This sounds like it is partially true, but to be honest, I can understand why players like Flood don’t want to play at Newcastle anymore - they are tipped for relegation this year, and are seen as one of the lesser clubs by the top teams - which is a change from when rugby went professional!

js @ August 27, 2008