Newcastle Falcons have brought in a raft of familiar faces for Friday’s pivotal Premiership Rugby Cup clash at home to northern rivals Sale Sharks.

The 7.45pm kick-off at Kingston Park pits the two unbeaten teams in pool one against each other – Newcastle and Sale having both recorded a perfect ten points from their two outings so far in a competition which sees the five group winners and three best runners-up progressing to the quarter-finals.

Captain Callum Chick returns to lead the side, with centre Sammy Arnold, hooker Jamie Blamire, scrum-half Sam Stuart and flanker Tom Gordon among the Gallagher Premiership regulars coming back into the line-up.

Director of rugby Steve Diamond insisted the stakes are high for the cup clash, with the Falcons boss selecting an appropriately powerful line-up.

“We’ve spoken all week with the players about making this a professional Premiership-level performance, because this is a competition we want to win,” said Diamond.

“I’ve won it a few times before so I know it can be a big momentum generator within a club, and with Sale having struggled a bit during the early part of the league season I’m sure they’ll be looking at it in the same light.

“Both sides will be wanting to give this tournament a real good go because it’s a chance to win some silverware, and as I’ve already alluded to it just helps get that winning mentality back in the building. We’ve won three of our last four games in all competitions, and as much as people might say two of them were cup games against Championship sides, they’ve all been good contests and you can start to the see the effect it’s having on the lads getting a few victories to their name.”

Having battled to a 31-28 triumph over Doncaster Knights in their last outing, Diamond said: “The first half saw some of our best rugby all season, and we played some great stuff going 28-0 up at half-time.

“Despite having all the best intentions we put our cue on the rack during the second half which allowed Doncaster back into the contest, and to be fair to them they produced some good stuff. We had to hang on at the end with a 20-phase goal-line stand which went on for over three minutes, but we got the result, and that’s all people will remember at the end of the season.

“Obviously Sale will be a tough test and they’ll be coming up here to challenge us, but with the cold weather setting in on a Friday night at Kingston Park I believe this is the time of year when we can start to really make our home advantage count.”

One change to Friday’s proceedings will be the new interpretations around the ‘escort’ laws which have been implemented during the recent international window, and have now been dropped into the club game at short notice.

“It’ll cause all teams make some pretty big changes to their game plan, but I believe it’s a positive move for the sport,” said Diamond.

“It basically means teams won’t be able to put a protective wall of players around their catcher when they’re defending a high kick, and it just makes it a genuine 50-50.

“I think that’s what most supporters want to see, and if I’m brutally honest about it we weren’t very good at the old escorting strategy. We’ve got some decent height in our back three and guys who are good at competing in the air, so if anything it should benefit us.”

Season ticket holders are reminded that Friday’s game IS included in their 2024-25 package.

Non season ticket holders can buy tickets by clicking here, with supporters advised this game is not being televised or live-streamed.

Newcastle Falcons team v Sale Sharks (Friday, 7.45pm, Kingston Park)

15 Ethan Grayson, 14 Ben Stevenson, 13 Sammy Arnold, 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Alex Hearle, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Murray McCallum, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Richard Palframan, 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Adam Scott, 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Mike Rewcastle, 18 Callum Hancock, 19 Finn Baker, 20 Freddie Lockwood, 21 Max Pepper, 22 Oli Spencer, 23 Nathan Greenwood.

Sale Sharks: 15 Will Addison, 14 Obi Ene, 13 Luke James, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Alex Wills, 10 Tom Curtis (captain), 9 Raffi Quirke; 1 Bevan Rodd, 2 Tadgh McElroy, 3 Nick Schonert, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 5 Ben Bamber, 6 JL du Preez, 7 Sam Dugdale, 8 Dan du Preez.

Replacements: 16 Harry Thompson, 17 Tumy Onasanya, 18 James Harper, 19 Rouban Birch, 20 Tom Burrow, 21 Tristan Woodman, 22 Nye Thomas, 23 Joe Bedlow.

Referee: George Selwood.