Two Cumbrians have been picked to start Newcastle Falcons’ Greene King IPA Championship season-opener at London Scottish.

Seaton-born Blamire, a former Workington Zebras player, comes in at hooker after impressing in cup action, while former Carlisle Rugby Club man Gary Graham is rotated back into the back row for tomorrow afternoon's game (3pm kick-off).

Sean Robinson, meanwhile, will captain Newcastle who have won all three of their Championship Cup games, beating Jersey, Doncaster and Hartpury.

In total, director of rugby Dean Richards has made eight changes to the side which ran in eight tries at Hartpury last time out, with Toby Flood, Sinoti Sinoti and Adam Radwan among the other starters.

"It’s our first league game, the opening block of cup rugby is behind us now, and it’s all about getting the points we need to finish top of the league," said 56-year-old Richards, who has won the Championship title at the first attempt with both Newcastle and Harlequins, on Falcons’ website.

"There’s absolutely no reason why we should expect to go through the season unbeaten because we’re going to encounter some really hard tests along the way, and it’s just about getting as many points on the board as we can to be at the top of the tree come the end of the year.

"London Scottish have a reasonably strong scrum, an experienced back row and hard-running centres. They’re a team who are reasonably well drilled and don’t throw too many boys in at the breakdown, so they’ll have a big defensive line.

"They’ll be a hard team to break down as a result of that, and they’re not far off being a Premiership-standard team when you have a good look at them.

"On their day, they can be incredibly good, and we have to have cool heads in terms of how we deal with what we bring to the game."

Brett Connon, the brother of Carlisle players Max and Grant, is not involved in Falcons' 23-man matchday squad.