Hayman smashes but Falcons draw
By Leipziger
September 14 2009
Our Falcons missed another good opportunity to grab a first win of the Premiership season yesterday as they were held to another draw by Sale at Kingston Park. As at Leeds, it was a game we could and probably should have won but in the end we could easily have lost.
With five of our seven backs, including all three-quarters, having joined in the summer, it's perhaps not surprising that we still struggled to create a lot of clear chances and that while our try came from a break and a loose ball, Sale's was aided by possible misunderstanding between our defenders and the full-back being out of position.
Jimmy Gopperth's fitness is now a worry after a tough and possibly late hit on the ankle by Lee Thomas, probably contributing to him missing two kicks, but while I think Sale were more likely to win yesterday than Leeds were last week, our defence did well overall and we are, for better or for worse, still unbeaten after two games.
On the plus side, Filipo Levi, Charlie Amesbury, Tom Biggs and especially Rob Vickerman had encouraging home debuts, and though James Hudson is improving Gcobani Bobo needs to do more.
The Falcons were the better team for much of the first half and despite Gopperth's first kick from hand going out on the wrong side of the flag he again controlled our play well, and sent over a huge kick for Amesbury, which the winger dived to collect and would have scored had he not been adjudged to have been in front of the kicker. Needless to say, the crowd weren't too pleased with that one.
Gopperth put last week's kicking difficulties behind him too to kick two early penalties, Lee Thomas pulling one back before Mark Cueto chipped over a flat Falcons back line to run in unopposed for the first try, and Thomas converted.
With the Falcons dominating in the scrum and the lineout we were always likely to get more points and Gopperth's boot reduced the deficit to one. A big kick upfield from our half was then chased by Amesbury and Vickerman... Neil Briggs waited as the ball slowed and as he gathered it above the line, Amesbury forced a drop and Vickerman touched down easily under the posts for our first try of the season.
Gopperth's conversion gave us a 16-10 half-time lead, probably a fair return on the opening 40 that had seen us be slightly the better team but probably not good enough to have scored more.
The second half followed pretty much the same pattern although we had to do some pretty resolute defending under pressure from the Sale maul and the Mancs will probably be a little disappointed they didn't turn their better chances into a win. Alex Tait also had to sprint back to touch down in-goal with the Sale attack bearing down on him, saving a certain try.
Thomas missed a further penalty and also took Gopperth out with a tackle that was at least slightly late and injured our fly-half's ankle.
Gopperth bravely played on, but missed two more kicks, one flying across the goal and the other hitting the outside of the left post. Although his movement improved, it was a bad hit and I'm surprised Rob Miller wasn't brought on instead of having to wait until Amesbury was taken off with ten minutes to go. With there now being eight replacements, there is really no excuse for only having two backs on the bench (a lively Hall Charlton had already replaced Micky Young).
Uche Oduoza is in the reserve team tonight so is clearly fit, why wasn't he on the bench?
Anyway, two penalties from Thomas brought Sale level, but although Newcastle continued to dominate in the scrum (man of the match Carl Hayman leading from the front) and lineout as we had all afternoon in the end, like last week, under pressure we were forced to kick for touch in our own 22 to ensure we didn't lose.
So for the first time we draw our first two games at the start of the season, still unbeaten but still without a win (now for six games since March). I seem to be watching different games to everyone else as most people seemed to think yesterday was an improvement on Leeds – while I'll admit Sale are a better team than Leeds, we were never really in danger of losing at Headingley, but I reckon Sale could easily have won yesterday, especially if their forwards had turned a little spell of 22 possession into points, so I'm not sure that is an improvement.
On the other hand, our forwards did very well against a better pack, I can't remember us losing a lineout yesterday, and the backs are showing signs of linking up nicely, unfortunately some silly errors including a horrific knock-on by Bobo let us down at times. These need to be cut out, we are getting more turnover ball than in a long time but we are also conceding too much.
I'm also worried about the lack of a back-up kicker in the starting XV – if Gopperth doesn't fancy it then who else can step up? I'm thinking of Tulip and Vickerman for some reason, maybe they have kicked the odd one before, but not with any regularity.
Opinion seems to be split between optimism and pessimism at the moment, I'm slightly on the optimistic side but that's only because I think we have a decent, if new, squad. But they need to start winning quickly.
OT: final thought. It's a miracle I got this report up, I went onto the admin site and Google Toolbar said “This page is in Filipino, would you like Google Toolbar to translate?” Looked perfectly English to me!
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Alex Tait has never kicked goals at any level.
Also, we only lost one line out all game on our throw for the second successive week.
Cheers
Smithy
Not frontline kickers, no. Miller was the next kicking option.
Cheers
Smithy
Sheer poetry.
The hooker doesn't hit a static target in the air, rather that there is a group effort to get the jumper in the right place and for the hooker to get the ball to him. In your example, how do you know Thumper didn't hit the perfect spot and the jump had been knacked up and they'd put the target in the wrong position?
Yes, calls do go awry, but throwing in to the bread basket is just as valid as a lob ball, the idea being to retain possession, so if your oppo is getting above you, go lower, not much different to throwing to the front prop, rather than a jumper.
I do like Hayman loitering at the back of the line though, looks more threatening in both attack & defence.
Quote:I do like Hayman loitering at the back of the line though, looks more threatening in both attack & defence.
I prefer "lurking" to "loitering", sounds far more menacing.