Newcastle Falcons pre-season plans suffered another setback as they lost 25-21 at Leeds Carnegie on Sunday. Without Jonny Wilkinson and Jamie Noon, a much-changed Falcons side fell to a late try at Headingley to make it two defeats in two games. Newcastle's director of rugby Steve Bates told the club's website: "We're obviously disappointed but the boys had a good 80 minute work-out today." John Rudd, Tim Swinson and Steve Jones all scored tries for the Falcons.  | Next Sunday's game against Racing Metro will see us field something close to what our starting line-up will be for the Sale Sharks game |
Bates added: "We made a lot of changes to look at some different combinations and while there are some positives to take from it, there is also plenty of room for improvement. "We now head to France for a week's training camp which gives us some quality time as a group to work on what needs to be done. "Next Sunday's game against Racing-Metro will see us field something close to what our starting line-up will be for the Sale Sharks game on 7 September, with a match-day 22 rather than the raft of replacements we have used for the two previous friendlies. "We will look to involve Jamie Noon in some form for that game after his rest period and while Jonny Wilkinson will most likely not be involved in Lille, we are hopeful he will be ready."
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