Falcons - Birds of Prey or Pray?

ZP3
By Chris Chaplin
September 24 2003

Into round three and with Tigers probably the slightly happier of the two sides that will next meet at Welford Road. Will this be the season when Falcons prey on a weakened Tigers at Welford Road or instead will they pray that things can only get better...

... after another defeat in the run of reverses that started there back in the last decade.

South African tighthead Marius Hurter was replaced by the less well known Ian Peel against Sarries in that surprise defeat for the Kingston Park team and the pack certainly looks to have sharpened up thereafter although I’d have thought the experienced Springbok Hurter will remain first choice for the trip to Leicester as he was for Falcons scrappy and fortuitous win over Sale on Sunday. The rest of the front row options are all youngsters but what they lack in experience they have showed they can make up for with enthusiasm giving both Sarries and Sale a bit of a going over at times.

What a contrast though in the second row! The inspired signing of Mark Andrews in the second half of last season saw him guide the Falcons away from the ignominy of the drop even though the most capped Springbok of all time was not at his absolute best. For me Andrews sits at Johnno’s right hand at the top table of locks, an uncompromising, dedicated leader and able to cause absolute mayhem both in the tight and the loose, like Johnno his support play is one for all aspiring players to watch. Partnering Andrews as first choice would normally be Garath Archer who was absent with a back problem from the Sale match and so was deputised for by young ex Academy player Hamilton. Andrews himself was replaced at half time by Dowson, another youngster who is more usually considered as a #8. The Springbok legend is thought unlikely to be available for the visit to Welford Road. So with Grimes otherwise engaged the second row to face Tigers could be Archer/Hamilton and Dowson/Vyvyan.

Another waif from the demise of Bristol where he made over three score appearances during his time there, Archer now returns to his roots. The Durham born player was capped 23 times at senior level and it is surely only due to his suspect temperament counting against him that he did not go further at international level. However with 13 yellow cards and 2 reds to his name and before anybody starts on about Johnno the stats show that our boy has a score of a mere 7 yellows and no reds, Archer is obviously a potential timebomb ticking away and it would be naive to think that his opponents don’t play on this weakness in his character. If he can behave though he’s a fine player and with Andrews forms one of if not the most experienced pairings in the league but one which we may not have the pleasure of seeing at Welford Road just yet.

All teams that aspire to greatness have at least one magical player with Falcons being blessed to have more than this minimum compliment with Epi Taione one of them. The Tongan international started life as a wing but often now seen as a flanker where his size (18stones plus and 6’4”) and strength, allied to tremendous pace off the back of the scrum, ruck or maul is something fearsome to behold. Like all good flankers he occasionally gets the unwelcome attention of the ref but his one red card arose from the now infamous battle of Gloucester. One to watch as he roars off the back of the scrum like a Rhino who‘s just found that his horn, when powdered, is the latest must have food supplement. Here too though Falcons have been hit as he was also carried from the Kingston Park field of battle with damaged ankle ligaments and is most unlikely to recover in the four days available before his body is again required. If this sadly proves to be the case then it looks like the young Academy product, Jon Dunbar, who replaced Taione against Sale, will be called upon again.

With Adrian Mower away wearing the Thistle step forward Warren Britz, another South African import, Rob Andrew must like Cape Town, capped just the once for his country has had some good press so we shall have to see what he can do against the experience of Josh Kronfeld. The back row trio is completed by Hugh Vyvyan who with over 90 appearances for the Tyneside club is ever present and gets on with his work in a sort of understated way, able to play equally well in the second row he’s a real club man having earned just a single cap for his country.

Ex Tiger James Grindal these days shares the #9 jersey with Hall Charlton, who is another Durham lad having played all his rugby in the North east and I suppose the senior partner of the duo. Tigers fans will remember Grindal and like Charlton is a decent enough player but unlikely to set the world alight.

The chasm at Fly-half caused by the ever absent wunderkind that is Jonny Wilkinson has seen a thankfully recovered Dave Walder finally installed after his injury travails last year which saw him sidelined essentially for the whole season. Surely one of the most unlucky absentees (with our own Graham Rowntree) from the World Cup squad, quite how with King sidelined Walder got leapfrogged by Mike Catt will forever remain a mystery to me at least. I rate this lad highly and on his day he’s hard to fault whether kicking from the tee, kicking out of hand or making those trademark breaks through any slight fissures in the opposition defence. Yet another casualty of the mayhem at Kingston Park Walder suffered a deadleg so it remains to be seen if he can recover in time to keep 21 year old Phil Godman on the bench.

Sitting in the centre like a pair of , well Falcons I suppose, should be that very fine centre pairing of Tom May and Jamie Noon. May, though never capped at senior level, is the mortar in this well established partnership, having gravitated to Tyneside from the old Richmond club. He was dragooned on to the wing against Sale which I don‘t see as his natural or best position. Strong and able to open the door of even the most dogged defences, with Noon he is part of one of the most established and effective centre partnerships around. Jamie Noon, another of those culled by Woodward from the RWC party is a smashing player, a product of the Falcons academy he has played 81 times for his club scoring new fewer than 17 tries in the process. Great pace, able to spot a gap and run a great line from deep he takes some stopping. A fine, fine partnership and one broken up at Falcon‘s peril in my view.

Out on one wing will doubtless be Michael Stephenson although he’s equally at home at 15 he’s another local lad and again the scoring potential of this side can be seen when it is considered that he has scored 18 tries from 60 premiership starts. On the other flank new boy and sevens star Ben Gollings, newly recruited from Quins has scored 15 tries as well as being pretty adept with his boot. He has put All Black Mark Meyerhofler on his mettle and if it’s pace you want Ben’s your man and so it was on Sunday but with Gollings moved to full back, May going to the wing with Meyerhofler snaffling the centre spot. Gollings was not as secure in defense as he could have been at Quins which I think in part stems from his substantial exposure to the sevens game so his move to 15 against Sale and those that surrounded it were a little confusing for me - but then I‘m easily confused!

Full back should I think, be Stephenson or it could be ex Saint and sometime tonsorially challenged Joe Shaw rather than Gollings. Shaw couldn’t get his feet right under the Franklins Gardens table and so headed north. Another pacey sevens player who is great on the counter attack but I do wonder a bit about his defensive credentials as well.

So then what do we have from our friends from the north?

A relatively inexperienced front row. An exceptionally talented and experienced first choice second row which may not be available and thereby expose their younger or utility players, with their potential match winner instead of lurking at #6 in plaster. The Falcons back division must be the fastest in the Premiership but I just wonder whether the front row is savvy enough and just as importantly whether Charlton and Grindal are strong enough lynchpins to get it all stuck together, especially if Walder is not fit.

Tigers’ pack looked a better unit when they were part of the team that held Sarries to an exciting draw at Vicarage Road last weekend with Darren Morris coming on in pretty short order from the bench and looking quite his old Lions’ self with some bullocking runs and a contribution to a much steadier scrum so I hope that we’ll see George Chuter with Rowntree and Morris as his starting henchmen. The lads in the second row are doing well and while not exactly looking a threat to the opposition’s ball in the lineout they are not losing much either. I suppose the bulk and guile of their international counterparts is most keenly missed in the rucks, mauls and open play, but they’re doing OK are the class of 2003.

Josh is playing out of his skin, winning anything going spare and from the fury of the Sarries supporters that surrounded me last weekend when they abused him and complained about him for 80 odd minutes he’s doing a great job! Young Skinner is a fine impact player and Johnson W is his usual workmanlike self but where is Adam Balding? With Dan bruised and battered and now having presumably gone off down under it’d be nice to see Balders at 8 and perhaps with Henry T at 6. Josh, Adam and Henry. Hmmm. could be a handful.

Oz apparently picked up a calf tweak which kept him out of the Sarries game and I hope he’s OK for Friday (fancy playing on a Friday following a Sunday fixture giving just four days with no time off! Tsk.Tsk) and with Pez looking sharp and them both having something to prove to their respective national coaches it would be good to see a lot more of them this week, particularly in harness. Daryl Gibson was again splendid against the Men in Black although I still think the subtler and more intuitive skills of Ollie Smith would be a much better compliment at 13 than the more direct Leon Lloyd who always looks like a good winger constrained in a centres’ girdle and where is Mr. Booth these days? Man of the match at Vicarage Road, Stimmo of course at 15.

I reckon that on the most recent showings the scrum may well favour the Tigers and if neither of the first choice Falcons’ locks are available then our relatively experienced Louis Deacon should, with Hamilton in tow, have the edge in the lineouts too and if the potent force of Taione is removed from the equation then it‘s hard to see the Tigers backrow trio being bested.

So I see Tigers having the better of the forward play. With Healey and Pez in contention and Kronfeld in attendance then the half back battle should go to Tigers as well, particularly if Walder is missing, and thus see the dangerous Gibson and Smith able to get the back three into play. Of course if the exciting Newcastle back division can get some decent ball they are a veritable try scoring machine and there could be big trouble as we try to hold on the likes of Noon, May, Stephenson, Gollings et al.

However I don’t really see it happening and I expect the injury hit and depleted Falcons to be heading back up to Kingston Park in an attitude of supplication.