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Memorable meetings in black and white or colour

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Two hundred miles of M1/A1 Tarmac separate the clubs, but the flow of players between Leicester and this weekend's opponents Newcastle Falcons has been remarkable in recent years.Motorway services between Leicester and Newcastle must have seen profits soar as players moved between the two cities.   Supporters making the trip on Sunday will certainly follow in well-trodden steps.   Martin Corry, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood and Geoff Parling are four high-profile players who have worn black and white as well as red, white and green. Tim Stimpson moved from Tyneside to Tigers and completed a run of five successive league titles which has not been equalled.   Ben Woods also moved south with Flood, while Kieran Brookes and James Grindal made the journey twice, with prop Brookes now in his second spell at Kingston Park and scrum-half Grindal enjoying seven years in the North-east either side of his time with Tigers.   This season we are likely to bump into the familiar form of Alesana Tuilagi, while his younger brothers Andy and Brian will no doubt not be far away, no doubt sat with Manu on the sidelines.   Craig Newby and Adam Balding also had short spells in the North-East. And, of course, Dean Richards and John Wells stalk the touchlines for Falcons as they did in glittering days with Leicester.   For a club with a short history as the Falcons, there have also been numerous landmark encounters, including the 80-pointer at Welford Road with Tait on the receiving end, and the day the league title was won with victory over the visitors, but only a couple of hours after the final whistle when results were confirmed elsewhere.   The Tig recalls Flood confirming his breakthrough with a last-minute penalty winner for Falcons from in front of the dugouts just seconds after Sam Vesty thought he’d won it for the Tigers.   The list also includes the first game in front of the 10,000-seater stand at Welford Road, a dogged win on an afternoon remembered even among locals as one of Kingston Park’s coldest a couple of seasons ago, Vereniki Goneva’s daring chip-and-chase try in a hard-fought win last year, and his hat-trick in the opening-day triumph this season.   That’s quite a collection of links and memories in such a short period of time.   Now Falcons are anticipating their biggest home crowd for seven years for the arrival of the Tigers and another big day in the history of meetings between the two clubs.