Newcastle Falcons have selected one Cumbrian in their starting line-up to host Coventry while another is on the bench.

Graham, who grew up in Harraby and played for Carlisle Rugby Club, comes in for Nemani Nagusa after the Fijian picked up a broken finger.

Former Workington Zebras player Jamie Blamire, meanwhile, is named among Newcastle's replacements for Sunday's match in the Greene King IPA Championship at Kingston Park (3pm kick-off).

Elsewhere, Logovi’i Mulipola makes his first league appearance of the season. He forms part of a side showing seven changes from the one which won 11-6 at Bedford last weekend.

Sebastian de Chaves replaces the injured Sean Robinson at lock and Will Welch starts on the blind-side flank, while Joel Hodgson pulls the creative strings from fly-half and Josh Matavesi comes back into the centres.

"The great thing with the World Cup boys is that there’s no rush to throw them all straight in, such is the depth that we have," Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards told the club website.

"Josh Matavesi and Greg Peterson have both played for us already, we’ll mix in a couple more guys on Sunday, but there’s no urgent need to start them all at the same time.

"It’s great because it adds to the competition for places and that’s, ultimately, what drives up your standards.

"This season also affords us the opportunity to blood some of our younger players, but we’ll do that in a selective way whereby they’re alongside experienced guys, rather than being dropped in wholesale as a group.

"As well as developing these talented younger players, we’ve also got to balance the simple fact that we need to be winning every game, and that’s the judgment that we’ve got to make when we pick the team."

On the prospect of facing up against one of the clubs he used to watch as a child, Richards added: “I’m a Nuneaton lad, so I was never affiliated to Coventry Rugby Club in any formal sense, but I’m a Coventry City football fan and am, obviously, aware of the great tradition around the rugby club there.

“I used to get down to Coundon Road and watch them quite a bit when I was younger, but it’s not a club I was ever personally involved with.

“They’ve since got a new ground and then this season added a new 3G pitch, similar to the one we have here.

"It means we’ll get a quality playing surface on Sunday, despite all the rain we’ve had over the past few weeks, although the fact that Coventry have one as well probably negates any additional advantage.”

After five matches, Falcons are top of the Greene King IPA Championship table, while Coventry are in third spot.