Newcastle lock James Hudson will be on familiar territory this Sunday, as his Falcons side travels to London Irish in Guinness Premiership action.

The 28-year-old makes his tenth appearance in Newcastle colours following his summer move from the Exiles, eager to see the Falcons build on their two successive league victories over Bath and Worcester.

“I’m looking forward to the game very much, not because of any personal need to prove anything, but because it’s an important game for Newcastle Falcons as a team,” said the line out kingpin, who comes up against the formidable duo of Bob Casey and Nick Kennedy in the all-important set-piece battle.

“It’s a great stadium and a fantastic surface at Reading, I still have a lot of friends there and it will be nice to be back, but it’s a big Guinness Premiership game for Newcastle to win and that’s all I’m thinking about.

“Irish have had a strong start to the season, they’ve found their rhythm and it will be a tough game down there, but we’ve also started to improve over our last few league games and we’re going down there with a lot of confidence.”

Excited by the chance to pit his wits against some former team mates, Hudson said: “There was always a healthy competition in training with guys like Bob, Nick and a few others, and it will be interesting for all concerned to go up against each other in that sort of match environment.

“They do have quite a few guys away with internationals and injuries, but they’ve done a great job developing their squad and you can see that by the team they are putting out on Sunday.

“They have added a bit more depth over the summer, they still have plenty of quality in there even when guys are away and we know we will have to be right on our game.”

Fully recharged after being one of a host of Falcons players spared the rigours of Cup action, Hudson insists he is in better shape than ever.

“It’s been a bit of a privilege to have a couple of weeks off from playing, and I don’t think I realised how much I needed it,” he said.

“When I was first told about it I was a little bit unsure, but our conditioner Andy Smith has really done a fantastic job in looking after us during these past couple of weeks.

“After the first two days’ rest I was sat at home thinking that I’ve never felt fresher, we’re all recharged and the guys are just desperate to play now. It’s not as if we’ve been sat on our backsides for a fortnight, we’ve still been in the gym and doing rugby training, but it’s all been specific to putting us in the best possible shape for this weekend and the remainder of the season.”

Having been part of an Exiles team which racked up almost a half-century of points in the same fixture last year, Hudson said: “Looking back on it I don’t think it was expected to be a win of that margin and, to be fair, it was one of the best performances we put together all season.

“From a Newcastle perspective I think everyone knows there has been a big change since then, we’re starting to really build something as a club and the belief is that it will be a different story this time round.”

Looking for a third consecutive Guinness Premiership victory this weekend, he added: “Winning is a habit, and the bulk of this team which is playing on Sunday is the same as the one which has won the last two league games against Bath and Worcester.

“It means we carry a lot of momentum into the game, we’ve been absolutely buzzing in training and everyone is looking forward to Sunday.

“We know what the challenge in front of us is and we have respect for all our opponents, but there is a lot of confidence within the group that we can really attack this next chunk of Guinness Premiership games and build on our top-half position.”