Newcastle will go for the jugular

Challenge Cup: Last week's 16-13 victory over Newcastle at the Sportsground gives Connacht a shot at another European odyssey. Only problem is they have gone to Kingston Park before and struggled.

Factor in the home debut for All Black prop Carl Hayman, along with the first appearance of Jonny Wilkinson in front of the Geordies, and it all looks like Connacht are in for a rough afternoon.

Revenge will be in the air, so expect the Falcons to go for the jugular right from the outset.

"We didn't perform, but let's not forget that despite the disappointment of losing in Ireland we are still top of the group and we have a great chance this Sunday to keep our campaign going," said director of rugby John Fletcher.

"We look forward to inviting Connacht here to Kingston Park. We feel we have some unfinished business with them, but we are going to do our talking on the pitch rather than in the press."

Fletcher has made five changes, in contrast to an unchanged Connacht. The England centre Matt Tait moves from fullback to midfield alongside Jamie Noon, who will look to do serious damage down the inside channel.

Their pack will also be keen to return the favour to the Connacht eight, who gave them a bit of a hiding in Galway.

Hayman certainly sounded keen to make an instant impression: "The funny thing with sports teams is that it just takes the smallest wee thing to get everyone going, to kick things off and hit a run of form. It can be something as simple as a big tackle early in a game, or whatever makes you tick. But a big home win on Sunday would certainly build a bit of confidence with another home game to come the weekend after.

"When you look round our changing-room and watch us train, you realise this is a team with a lot of quality in pretty much every area. What we need to do is just dig a bit deeper, give a bit more for the team when we think we're spent."

Connacht are a point adrift of Brive and Newcastle on nine points after three games. Defeat here would see Michael Bradley's team with too much ground to make up. Victory would be a significant achievement.

NEWCASTLE FALCONS: T May; T Visser, M Tait, J Noon (capt), J Rudd; J Wilkinson, L Dickson; J McDonnell, M Thompson, C Hayman; A Perry, M Sorensen; G Parling, B Woods, R Winter. Replacements: A Long, J Golding, S Tomes, B Wilson, J Grindal, T Flood, O Phillips.

CONNACHT: G Duffy; A Wynne, D Yapp, M Deane, O Treviranus; A Dunne, C O'Loughlin; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; M Swift, A Farley (capt); M McCarthy, J O'Connor, J Muldoon. Replacements: J Fogarty, R Loughney, D Gannon, R Ofisa, C McPhillips, T Donnelly, M Mostyn.

Referee: Peter Allen(Scotland).

Forecast: Newcastle to win.