York yearning to make home comforts count
Newcastle Falcons back row forward Chris York says a Friday Night Kingston Park atmosphere can still play a role as the team go in search of an Aviva Premiership win when Bath are the visitors this week, (K0 7:45pm)
Mike Ford’s side travel to the North East on the back of a European Champions Cup exit and will be determined to make a step towards securing second place in the table and securing a home play off spot.
York however insists recent performances against clubs like Leicester and Saracens shows that this season’s Falcons can challenge visiting teams on the home field.
“I think certainly for most of the games we’ve played recently here, we’ve getting the best of teams like Leicester, when we had up here for 70 minutes we were pretty much leading the game and we’re not expecting any change there.”
“With this new pitch, were accustomed to it, we know what our strengths are and how we can best get them from this pitch so I think I think there definitely is a home advantage and hopefully we will be able to use our experience from playing on the new surface this season and show some of that on Friday night.”
“We’ve had a couple of results which probably haven’t gone our way due to a number of different reasons, but we believe that’s because of ourselves and what we haven’t done in the game, what we should have been doing in the game so were looking to obviously get a good performance on Friday night.”
Having just missed out on a losing bonus point after a committed game at the Rec in November, York believes focusing on their own strengths is the key to performing well in front of the home fans this week.
York said: “I know that the last couple of times we’ve played bath we probably haven’t performed as well as we should have or wanted to. I think they’ll probably be coming up here knowing that they are in good form, wanting to keep themselves at the top of that table as much as possible.
“I think hopefully though, they’ll have a little surprise with the intensity and the physicality we will be bringing on Friday with our defence, making sure that were putting some line speed on them, getting into their faces and making them make mistakes.”
“Hopefully with our eye on strengths like the maul and I think we’ve got a very good backline that’s got a few very dangerous threats. If playing, Sinoti Sinoti is a very good runner of the ball and Alex Tait is a very strong runner as well who knows how to break the line.”
“There’s definitely a few players in the backline that will be asking questions of them and their defence, and hopefully we’ll be able to get our attack going on the front foot as much as they’re wanting to for theirs.”
Tickets for Friday’s match are still on sale and can be bought by clicking here calling 0871 2266060 or by visiting the Kingston Park box office.
Advanced ticket prices start from £15 for adults and £7.50 for under 16s, with these prices valid until 5pm on Friday.