| Newcastle Falcons one to watch - Tim Visser |
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 Dutch wing Tim Visser enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence in the 2006/7 season, bursting on to the Guinness Premiership stage in spectacular fashion. Coming on to the field as a replacement wing for the last ten minutes against Worcester at Kingston Park, his trademark left foot step took him round the last man, scoring what proved to be the winning try with the very last play of the game. He then followed that up with tries in his next two Premiership outings. All the more remarkable was the fact that only a matter of months earlier he had been playing as a flanker for Barnard Castle School, having been spotted by fellow Falcons Joe Shaw and James Grindal as a raw teenager playing in the Amsterdam Sevens. Such was the impression made by the young Visser that Shaw immediately alerted then Falcons academy manager John Fletcher, who flew Visser over from Holland for a trial before securing a place at the famous Barnard Castle rugby nursery. England Schools honours soon followed for Visser who is from a rugby family, with his father Marc having been Holland’s most-capped player with over 80 appearances in the back row for his country.
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