After The Lord Mayor’s Show or When Jonny Came Mar

By Roger
February 6 2007

A week after the storming of Thomond Park, Tigers were back to basics for the Guinness Premiership visit of Newcastle Falcons. The headlines will focus on the return to action of Jonny Wilkinson but it was Leicester Tigers that impressed.

Three weeks ago I sat in the West Stand at Kingston Park and watched Newcastle Falcon’s new-look front row give as good as they got against our boys. Not only that, their ‘other’ England fly half, Toby Flood, nicked the game with virtually the last kick. Cue scenes of riotous celebration among the Geordie faithful and plenty of ‘how did that happen?’ shoe staring from the few Tigers fans that had made the long journey up the A1.

So when the teams were announced for the return fixture I looked on the line-ups with some degree of trepidation. Falcons had made just two changes to the side that shaded the ‘first leg’. They’d brought in a little known centre by the name of Jamie Noon and added some Samoan sting on one of the wings. We, on the other hand, had made wholesale changes but while our pack looked up to the task of holding their own again, the back line had the look of a Monday night or Anglo Whelk Trophy side. This, I feared, was a gamble that could result in our losing the ‘unbeatable’ tag we’ve picked up in Premiership fixtures at Welford Road again. Still, as Pat points out, finishing in the top four is all that matters. Yeah, right.

Watching the warm up confirmed the rumours we’d been hearing for most of the week, ‘Wor Jonny’ was making another of his regular comebacks (poor lad must have run over a nun in a former life) and while not selected to start, he’s a player that any director of rugby would love to have to squeeze into his salary cap - an impact player par excellence. Not that our bench was to be sneezed at. Pat resting several of the star names meant that our replacements numbered Chutes, Castro, Cozza, Harry Ellis, Ian Humphreys, Alex Tuilagi and Tom Croft.

But in the build up, talk on the terraces was of one thing, that night in Limerick and those fans that had been there sported an invisible badge of honour. There was a real sense that this game was going to be an anti climax. After the highs of Thomond Park, the bread and butter of the Guinness Premiership seemed like poor fare and I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that the Falcons would take the opportunity to catch us dreaming. Oh me of little faith.

The side wearing stripes flew out of the blocks. Winning the ball from our own kick off we kept it through several phases for the best part of two minutes until Falcons transgressed and Wayne Barnes (Stuart’s skinny brother?) stuck his arm out for the first penalty of the day. Up stepped Paul Burke and Tigers were three points to the good.

Unfortunately for Falcons, the laws of rugby dictate that when a team scores against you, you have to kick the ball back to them to start things off again. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the afternoon and while Tigers were slow to get the try counter ticking over, possession is nine tenths of the law.
Paul Burke (seemingly offended by all the chat on this forum announcing Ian Humphreys as the second coming) was orchestrating the troops with a confidence unseen since his arrival at Welford Road. Even when Frank Murphy threw passes a yard too far in front of his countryman, Paul stooped to collect. I lost count of the number of times he rescued a wayward pass when a knock on seemed certain.
Toby Flood had the chance to level the scores with a long range penalty but it faded short and minutes later Tigers doubled their lead when Paul Burke slotted his second three-pointer of the day.

We were making too many handling errors; there were as many in the first 15 minutes of this match as there had been in the 160 minutes of the previous two European games; but slowly the confidence grew and the mistakes became fewer. The good news was that our pack was continuing where the ‘Munster Eight’ had left off and it wasn’t until the 18th minute that the visitors got close enough to the Tigers try line to smell the doughnuts. Frank Murphy was pinged (I think for putting a boot in at a ruck) and the resulting penalty went into the corner to give Falcons the line out. Thankfully Jordan Crane saved the day by stealing the ball and the danger was cleared.

During the early exchanges Falcons flickered occasionally and there was evidence of what their backs can do given clean ball. From a penalty in their own half, Flood thumped the ball down field where Johne Murphy leapt high to tap it back in. Unfortunately, to howls of derision from the Tigers faithful in the Next stand, the touch judge signalled a line out to Falcons. Taking fast ball off the top of the line out, Falcons scrum half James Grindal released his backs and a missed tackle on Noon (Burke’s only lapse of the day) allowed the ball to be fed quickly through the hands of Tait and Crichton to Elliott who touched down in the corner for the first try of the day. Twenty-five minutes gone and it was 6-5. Game On.

Sadly for the Falcons fans that had travelled south to support their team, Flood pushed the touchline conversion attempt wide. The try was going to be the last time Falcons troubled the scorer but it seemed just the prod that Tigers needed and with our pack pushing ominously towards the Falcons try line, the 6’7” frame of Jason Oakes volunteered to spend 10 minutes in the bin by pulling down the rolling maul. That was the beginning of the end for the visitors. Tigers skipper for the day – Ben Kay – instructed Burke to put the ball into the stand and Shane Jennings forced his way over to score from the resulting line out. With Burke adding the extras it gave Tigers a 13-5 lead with 10 minutes of the half left.

There followed a brief interlude during which James Buckland appeared to audition for the ‘What happened next?’ segment of A Question of Sport. Taking a throw into a two-man lineout, Cabbage appeared to misunderstand Whopper’s instructions and threw the ball long straight to a waiting Falcon. Thankfully Wayne Barnes decreed that the throw in had to be retaken and second time around it went straight to Jordan Crane for Tigers to clear.

Any hopes Falcons had of rescuing the game took another blow when their No8, Russell Winter, was asked to take the place of his errant lock in the bin. The pair swapped places in the 39th minute and the moment coincided with the arrival of the man Britain’s press had assembled to see - Jonathan Peter Wilkinson OBE. Jonny ran on to the field as a replacement for Falcons’ try scorer, Anthony Elliott, who limped off.

There was little change in the pattern of play though. Tigers forwards rumbled on and with the last play of the half, Jordan Crane emerged from a maul to crash over. My eyes are definitely on the way out though. It was only once I’d realised Jordan’s scrum cap had been left 10 yards short of the line that I realised it wasn’t Ollie Smith celebrating the try.

Paul Burke slotted the extras from a difficult angle and the players trooped off for a cuppa with Tigers 20 points to five in front.


Second Half

The first chance of the second half fell to Falcons inside a minute when they were awarded a penalty. McDonnell indicated the posts and there was some surprise when the ball was given to Flood rather than Jonny. Whatever the reason, Flood hit the post, Whopper caught the rebound and the brief danger was cleared again.
Falcons’ line out hadn’t been functioning brilliantly all game and it came as small surprise when Andy Long replaced hooker Matt Thompson on 49 minutes. However, it was just the first move in an absorbing spell of changes. Pat Howard responded by replacing Michael Holford with Castro then gave Shane Jennings a well-earned rest by bringing on Tom Croft. Newcastle brought on Lee Dickson for James Grindal but that was simply the cue for Harry Ellis to take the field as a blood replacement for Frank Murphy, Anything you can do, we can do better!

Ellis made an immediate impact, guiding his forwards on a catch and drive for all of 15 yards before Marcos Ayerza grounded the ball for Tigers’ third try. Burke converted – another difficult angle – and at 27-5 there was no way back for Falcons.
Just to rub salt into the wound, Pat Howard continued sending in the big guns. Tigers ‘on fire’ winger, Alex Tuilagi, replaced Leon Lloyd on 61 minutes and there was rapturous applause when Cozza arrived to replace Brett Deacon a minute later. I owe Brett an apology. Mentally I’d marked him down as our back row weak link when the teams were announced but he’d played a blinder. He was a leading contender for my man of the match award when he was replaced. Certainly in the first half his work rate and tackling stood out.

Intent on giving everyone a game, Pat continued ringing the changes by replacing Paul Burke (who had certainly produced his best performance in a Tigers shirt that I’ve seen) with Ian Humphreys and the Ulsterman’s range added a different aspect to the play.
Usually when a team makes the number of changes that Pat had made, things start to go wrong but that didn’t happen on this occasion, the replacements have been playing together on as regular a basis as the squad rotation policy allows and with every replacement, Tigers’ dominance was reinforced. With 34 minutes of the second half showing on the clubhouse clock, I turned to my Crumbie neighbour and commented ‘what we need now is a backs try for the bonus point’. Cue Alex Tuilagi to crash through the middle of Falcons’ defence on a 15-yard charge. As Alex was hauled to ground Frank Murphy arrived to take up the move and as he was tackled, Tom Varndell snatched up the ball and jinked his way through to score. Fourth try, bonus point, top of the league!

Ian Humphreys slotted the conversion and took the score to 34-5 and in the dying minutes the Tigers backs produced another flowing move to put Tom in again. Humph missed the conversion but at 39-5 the day was well won.
I’d been nervous coming into the game, Falcons had the potential to be a banana skin but I left the ground massively impressed with our strength in depth. Our defence is excellent, our fitness levels seem way beyond those of any team we’ve come up against and some of last season’s fringe players have improved beyond all recognition.

Sam Vesty was the official man of the match and while I wouldn’t begrudge him the accolade, on reflection I’d have given it to Ben Kay. He handled the captaincy well, dominated the line out and made several key tackles and interceptions.
And Jonny? He looked fit and hungry but is he ready for England? Not yet.