Easter primed for Sale test
The Premiership Rugby Cup’s all-northern clash sees the Falcons looking to build on their 34-27 home victory over Wasps last Saturday – the same day that Sale were defeated 32-23 at Leicester Tigers.
“This competition can be useful for them in terms of preparing them for the Premiership, and Sale are also the current holders of the cup,” said Easter, the former England No.8.
“We know they’ve got Saracens away the week after in the Premiership and they’re then into Champions Cup rugby, so we’re expecting them to be at or near full strength.
“That’s what we want because we need to be challenging ourselves against good sides, and our guys will learn from coming up against such a physical team.”
Reflecting on last weekend’s opener as his side battled back from a half-time deficit against Wasps, Easter said: “A lot of our guys hadn’t played much rugby going into the game, so inevitably there was going to be a bit of rustiness.
“We actually started alright, we made a lot of breaks but just couldn’t finish them off. That’s down to a combination of support play and the decision-making of the ball carrier, and sometimes you can get lulled into a bit of complacency in terms of just thinking things are going to happen for you.
“To be fair to Wasps they’re a gritty team, and despite the number of injuries they had their guys still came here and put up a good fight. They made us work for it, they scored a couple of quickfire tries and we knew we had a game on our hands.
“It took all our resilience to fight back and get the job done, and it was a case of keeping our composure and sticking to our processes to ultimately get the five points.”
[**How the Premiership Rugby Cup works.**][1]
[1]: https://www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk/news/story/how-the-premiership-rugby-cup-works
