Greg Peterson relishing Friday’s Glasgow re-union
The single-leg shoot-out is an 8pm kick-off, with tickets priced just £10 for adults and £5 for under-16s.
The winner will meet either Lyon or Worcester Warriors in the quarter-final, with Peterson expecting a good test against his old club.
“The boys are buzzing to be in the knock-out rounds of European competition, and to have a home tie against a good side like Glasgow,” said Peterson, the USA international who spent three and a half seasons with the Scotstoun club.
“It’s knock-out rugby, it simplifies things in terms of knowing exactly what we need to do, and during every single phase of the game we’ve just got to make sure we’re totally switched-on. If we do that we’ve got a great chance of making a quarter-final, and there’s an onus on keeping each other in check.”
Glasgow are placed third in the United Rugby Championship with 10 wins from their 15 league games, Peterson saying: “Glasgow are a very expansive side who like to play running rugby, but they’ve also got a good pack and a strong line-out.
“They have a lot of Scotland stars in their squad, they’re a good team and it will be a different proposition to what we had last weekend. We’ve got systems in place to deal with that and we feel like we’re in a good place, so it should be a great game for anyone coming along to watch.
“I still keep in touch with a few of the boys up there, although a lot of guys have changed since I was there.
“I really enjoyed my time at Glasgow, it’s a very similar feel to Newcastle as a club and that’s one of the things that attracted me to Kingston Park. It’s just a very tight group of hard, working-class lads who want to play for each other – very similar to what we have here.”
Having left it late to claim last weekend’s 25-22 home win over Italian side Zebre Parma, Peterson stated: “From past experience Zebre are a very tough team, and if you let them come up and play the game they want to play, they’re very difficult to beat.
“Credit to them, they came out firing, showed that they were desperate and that they wanted to get that first win. They played some good footy, the ref didn’t give us a lot but in the end we took control of what we can do best.
“We left it until the very end but we came through with the result, and we now have this great opportunity at home to Glasgow on Friday.
“A lot in sport comes down to the top two inches, and after a big win at Worcester the week before perhaps we just weren’t quite where we needed to be against Zebre. We’ve got to be better than that – we haven’t always been good at that part of the game, but we’re aware of it and are working to improve there.”
Hopeful that the holiday atmosphere and a strong turn-out of supporters can help them on their way, he added: “It should be a great night on Friday, and hopefully we’ll get a decent crowd in.
“It’s a holiday weekend, the club have reduced the ticket prices to a tenner for adults and a fiver for kids, and they’ll be getting to see a decent game between two good teams who really want it.
“I’d encourage anyone in the region to come along and have a watch, and help support the Falcons in what is a really important game for us.”
[**Click here**][1] to buy tickets for Friday’s game, which is not included on the 2021-22 season ticket.
[1]: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/newcastle-falcons/EDP/Event/Index/1727
