In the front row, Andy Long replaces Matt Thompson at hooker due to a rib injury, while Geoff Parling comes in for Stuart Grimes at second row.
 
A neck injury to Phil Dowson sees captain Colin Charvis switch back to No 8, while Owen Finegan makes his first Premiership start in place of Mike McCarthy and Ben Woods comes in at openside after 18 months out with a badly broken leg.
 
There is one change in the backs as Mathew Tait replaces the injured Anthony Elliott, who took a bang to the shoulder in Sunday's 16-14 defeat to Bristol.
 
Director of rugby, Rob Andrew, said ahead of the game: "In terms of importance this Saturday isn't any more significant after two defeats, because all games in this league are important.
 
"Nothing in sport is ever more important than the next game, and the players have had that drummed in to them after last week's match, which they thought they would win just by turning up.
 
"We all know in sport that if you turn up and don't do the work, invariably you lose. It's a lesson that's as old as the hills, but some of our players have learnt it the hard way.
 
"You can't guarantee victory in this game, but you can guarantee a level of performance which gives you a good chance of victory, and we just didn't do that last weekend.
 
"Against Sale in the opening week you can almost accept the defeat because we played fantastically well and apart from a couple of errors we could have won away to one of the best teams in the Premiership, but against Bristol the performance was just weak, for want of a better word."
 
Assessing the fallout after the Bristol loss, he added: "We've looked at it, learnt our lesson and now we are just rolling our sleeves up and getting on with it.
 
"There will be no complacency this week, and as coaches we have to look at ourselves and say did we allow that to creep in last week? Did we do everything we could to remove enough of the complacency, and being brutally honest we would have to say clearly we didn't.
 
"You have to look at yourself in with everything else, and I can assure you we are doing that as a club and as a coaching team so that it doesn't happen again. You try and cover everything in your preparation, but judging from the performance we as a coaching team have learnt a lot as well.
 
"Having watched the tapes it is clear that we should still have won the game despite being appalling on the day, and Bristol must have thought it was Christmas morning with the gifts we gave them.
 
"But despite what happened last weekend we are still a good side, and we have strong belief that we can beat teams."
 
Welcoming back openside flanker Ben Woods in the week that he lost Phil Dowson to a neck injury, Andrew stated: "I've said for a few years now it's a revolving door when it comes to injuries.
 
"It's inevitable that you will lose bodies during the season, it's just a case of whether or not you have enough coming back through the revolving door when you lose players that is the key.
 
"This week we have lost Cory Harris and Dowson, but we have Finegan and Woods coming back, so we can just about cope with that. A season is a long time though, and it's difficult keeping so many balls in the air at the same time.
 
"The success of your season is often defined by when that door revolves, how many come out and how many go in. If you can keep that equation just about even then you've got a chance."
 
Praising the grit and determination of Premiership debutant Woods, Andrew said: "Ben has had a terrible 18 months, and most people have no idea how hard he has worked and the effort that has gone in to his rehabilitation from a really horrendous leg break.
 
"For him to get back on to a rugby pitch at all is mind blowing because it could have quite easily been a career-ending injury, so every single person who works at the club and has seen his determination every day in rehab for a year-and-a-half is thrilled for him.
 
"He was in the Phil Dowson class at the time he suffered the injury, he was one of England Under-21s' best players and he was seriously pushing for a first team place.
 
"He came on in Japan for his comeback, scored a try with his first touch of the ball, and he has scored four times in two Development Team games since, so while we ideally might have liked to ease him in gradually to first team rugby we do believe he is strong enough physically and mentally and merits his start this weekend."
 
Looking to opponents Northampton, he said: "I think they are still in the process of finding their feet a little bit.
 
"They lost a lot of games at home last season, so there will be a bit of tension there for the fans and the players.
 
"They've got a lot of new players in, they got thumped against Leicester but did win at Bath in what was not a very good game from either side, so if we can achieve the level of performance we did at Sale we believe we can cause them problems.
 
"I've been confident all pre-season that we can compete with anybody, and I still firmly believe it."
 
Saturday's game will be shown live on the big screen at Kingston Park, with food and drinks available throughout.
 
Newcastle Falcons team to face Northampton Saints:
 
15 Matthew Burke
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon
12 Mark Mayerhofler
11 Mathew Tait
10 Dave Walder
9 Hall Charlton
 
1 Micky Ward
2 Andy Long
3 Robbie Morris
4 Andy Perry
5 Geoff Parling
6 Owen Finegan
7 Ben Woods
8 Colin Charvis (capt)
 
Replacements:
 
David Wilson
Stuart Mackie
Tino Paoletti
Mike McCarthy
Stuart Grimes
James Grindal
Toby Flood