End of an era

By Leipziger
April 12 2007

The permanent move to Friday nights comes to an end tomorrow as for the second time in three weeks the Falcons take on the Cherry ‘n’ Whites from the West Country in the penultimate Premiership match of the season, looking to gain revenge for a tight defeat at Kingsholm in March.

Down south Jamie Noon’s first half try double was the result of a strong and pacy performance from the Falcons, who led 7-12 at the break and 7-15 early in the second period, before scores from Jake Boer and Ryan Lamb broke Geordie hearts and gave the home side a 24-18 victory in the final game in front of Kingsholm’s old main stand. Their final match of the season, at home to Bristol, will of course be played at Ashton Gate.

One of the top teams in the country this season, Gloucester were knocked off the top of the Premiership last weekend when they drew 21-21 at the Recreation Ground, where they have never won a league match, on Saturday and now trail Leicester by a single point after the Midlanders defeated Sale the previous evening. Both sides have tricky pairs of matches left though in the hunt for home playoff draws, with the Tigers travelling to Bristol before finishing at home to Wasps.

Our visitors are in decent form at present, unbeaten in six, although four of those games were at home and Gloucester have won only once in their last six away matches, 5-7 at Northampton on March 3rd. They have also won at Harlequins, Worcester, London Irish and Edinburgh in 2006/07 to go with draws at Leicester and Bath last week, when Will James and James Bailey were the try-scorers.

Having reached the heady heights of eighth place following Sunday’s win over Northampton which also secured Premiership rugby at KP next season, we are now unbeaten at home in eight matches since November, but face a steep task tomorrow against a side who have a better record in the North East than most teams (except London Irish perhaps). Again, and I’m sick of writing it, it is seven years to the month since the Falcons beat Gloucester outside of an international period, with Gloucester’s Premiership record at KP being as follows:
1997/98 W37-27
1998/99 W39-15
1999/2000 W36-28
2000/01 L18-19
2001/02 W18-16
2002/03 L19-22
2003/04 W42-22
2004/05 D27-27
2005/06 L9-13

The corresponding match last season was a dour encounter, ultimately settled by a sole try from Terry Fanolua in the first half, and although Matthew Burke’s third penalty after 68 minutes put us ahead, two further penalties from Ludovic Mercier sealed an away win. What is interesting to note is some of the names in our team that day: Anthony Elliott, Dave Walder, Hall Charlton, Robbie Morris, Stuart Grimes, Mike McCarthy, Cory Harris and Colin Charvis. Of those eight, four are confirmed to have left the club and the others are rarely seen on the pitch, including the full back row. Joe Shaw also played at centre, although with our new-look backline this will not be the case tomorrow.
John Rudd and Tom May seem to the latest players rotated every week, with Matt Thompson and Lee Dickson continuing their runs in the side. Phil Dowson starts his first match since October, returning from what was expected to be another season-ending injury. Mathew Tait is fit after taking a knock on Sunday, but Mark Sorensen misses out as Andy Perry comes in for a first start after injury too.

15 Matthew Burke (captain)
14 John Rudd
13 Mathew Tait
12 Jamie Noon
11 Toby Flood
10 Jonny Wilkinson
9 Lee Dickson
1 Joe McDonnell
2 Matt Thompson
3 Micky Ward
4 Andy Perry
5 Andy Buist
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Phil Dowson

Replacements:
David Wilson
Andy Long
Jason Oakes
Brent Wilson
Loki Crichton
James Grindal
Tom May

Gloucester team:
Iain Balshaw
James Bailey
Mike Tindall
Anthony Allen
Mark Foster
Ryan Lamb
Rory Lawson
Nick Wood
Olivier Azam
Carlos Nieto
Will James
Marco Bortolami (capt)
Peter Buxton
Jake Boer
James Forrester.

Replacements:
Mefin Davies
Jack Forster
Alex Brown
Luke Narraway
Peter Richards
Willie Walker
Jon Goodridge.