Winning ugly
By Leipziger
November 1 2009
A forgettable match at a wet and windy Kingston Park at least ended with the right result today as our Falcons secured a first Premiership home win of the season, 14-3 against Worcester, thanks to Rob Vickers' try and the boot of Jimmy Gopperth.
After a decent showing in the first half against a poor Warriors team, Newcastle were dominated territorially in an uninspiring second 40 but were in little danger of losing.
With Alex Tait failing a late fitness test, Charlie Amesbury moved to full-back and Tom Biggs was drafted in onto the left wing, meaning Filipo Levi replacing Adam Balding was the only change from the XV that won so well at Bath.
The Falcons dominated early on, even with Gopperth's kicking from hand not being completely accurate thanks to the wind, and after Mark Sorenson was tackled in front of the line, the ball came left and Vickers was driven over. The windy conditions meant the ball moved slightly as Gopperth attempted the conversion, and it went wide, but we were on our way.
Tane Tu'ipulotu and Filipo Levi made a number of charges while Gopperth sprayed the ball around for Danny Williams, and the winger almost touched down but was just beaten to the loose ball by a defender. Our forwards had Worcester beaten in the scrum but despite a number of infringements and a few high tackles referee Sean Davey kept his cards in his pocket.
On the half hour Gopperth increased the lead with a penalty, and we were 8-0 up at half-time. I had conflicting feelings, yes we were winning and Worcester were not putting up much of a challenge, but on the other hand we all know how home second halves have gone this season and we could've done with more points. Josh Afu, a first-half replacement for Brent Wilson, would have scored had the referee not already blown for a scrum for us on the 22.
The second half was, in my view, just awful, I can only remember one hint of a try-scoring chance and that was for Worcester when Sam Tuitupou made for the line, but after he was tackled we turned over and James Hudson and Tom Biggs combined to clear. Gopperth kicked another penalty, but on the hour Willie Walker reduced the lead back to eight points.
Most of the game was being played out between the halfway line and our 22 line, and the referee refused to let the game flow, and scrums were often a mess although we invariably got the decisions. Finally, a third penalty with ten minutes left gave us an 11-point lead and there was certainly no chance of Worcester coming back from that.
Sorry if that isn't as detailed as you expected but thinking like a neutral I can't remember a game we've won being that low on excitement. Worcester are certainly the worst Premiership team I've seen so far this season and their fans seem quite unhappy at the moment, and the weather notwithstanding we could've still hoped for another bonus point though.
There were some good performances by, in particular, Tu'ipulotu, Sorenson and Jon Golding, and Levi showed a lot of strength with the ball in hand too, I think he will continue to improve after a slow start with us. Man of the match Micky Young is also continuing his recent good form, and he continues to get up the opposition's noses and ensure he's at the centre of any fisties.
Four weeks ago though I asked for wins against Bath and Worcester and we have them, so I shouldn't really complain and I have often said that I believe the performance or quality of the game is secondary to the result. I just feel quite uninspired at the moment. I'm sure it will pass.
6th in the league isn't too bad a position considering we haven't had a great start to the season, but our next three league games are very challenging. The big question now is, considering the fare served up today and the fact we haven't won at Sixways for five years, but on the other hand we have won our last four games...do I go to Worcester on Saturday?
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The conditions meant we were never going to see running rugby and, after Leeds' surprise win at Wasps earlier, I'm just relieved we have bagged a win. I'm still looking at the teams behind us, rather than the ones in front.
Well played to the Falcons front row, again.
They are my men of the match!
Given the stick he has taken, Levi deserves a mention for a good performance.
FF, I noticed at one point in the first half we had a line out on the right in Worcester's 22 and Biggs was throwing his arms up while shouting across the pitch, presumably saying "Look at all this space I've got". That wasn't one of the few times he got the ball.
We could all see what the wind could do to the flight of the ball and at some times it was quite scary the amount of deviation once the ball went above the height of the west stand. What I'd like to say is congratulations to the many players who took cleanly a catch after the ball had been hoisted into the teeth of the gale. There were many today who took the catch without spilling it. Well done.
But today was just very, very uninspiring.
Lets be positive. Gopperth and Amesbury now have experience of playing at Kingston Park with a gale force south westerly blowing so should kick much better the next time the wind blows. Might help to keep the ball in hand a bit more next ime too. My 9 yr old asked after 15 mins if it was a kicking competition today. and he hasn't mastered sarcasm yet so I think he was serious.
and I think Hayman was still suffering from the flu. The scrum was excellent for the first 30 mins but was a bit of a shambles in the second half. (not helped by the ref). The forwards really seemed to fancy it in the fist half but looked to lose a bit of belief in the second half - not sure why.
Loved the way Micky Young was winding up the opposition at every opportunity.
but it's a win and with the Leeds result making the bottom of the table a lot more interesting, it's points that count.
As for the game, it was always going to be ugly, indeed not as many fumbles & stoppages as I expected. I will comment though that running the ball in general produced good results, and that kicking produced several piles of pants. The question therefore is pretty obvious - why not run the ball more? Once again Biggs went unmarked for a lot of the time as the opposition had worked out that he never ever gets the ball. Talking to DG after the game, he didn't see Biggs touch the ball in the first half, and I didn't even notice Biggs was there until he appeared in front of me as they lined up to start the second half.
Now then, unmarked player, plenty of space, pass him the ball quickly & I wonder what might happen?
Also, in consideration of the Sale comments about kicking & a boring game, all around me people were groaning as posession was pointlessly kicked away when running was a good option. If they want more bums on seats, and as a bonus possibly score more points too, try running the bloody ball for a change.
He's quite tall too so he could be useful in the line out, wonder why they don't use him as he doesn't look that heavy to lift.
I thought he had an excellent game and already at such an early stage he looks to be an excellent "find". Ed Williamson will not get his place back when fit if Welch keeps this form up.
Gopperth surely got a kicking at half time from Bates, his kicking in first half was awful and very immature, didn't play the conditions at all well.
Wuss were woeful today, had they been full strength in the pack they could well have turned us over, as we weren't that much better.
A win's a win though and you'd take that one today, regardless of how scruffy a win it was.
Yes, we were the better side, but it certainly wasn';t a walkover.
Having said that, for once at KP, we didn't look like we could lose it.
Have to say how Pat Sanderson did not get binned today amazed me as he constantley had his hands in the ruck.
I too thought MoM should have gone to a forward - either Sorensen or Hudson as the line-out was excellent in very difficult conditions.
Agree about Welch and Afu also looked lively when he came on.
Some fans around me were having a go at Gopperth after he put two kicks out on the full but in each case the option to kick was right although the execution was poor. He reads the game well. On several occasions instead of throwing the ball out wide when their defence was on top of us, he chose to cut back inside into heavy traffic and took some big hits before recycling the ball. The soft option would have beenjust to throw the ball down the line when it was going nowhere.
Thought Sean Davey hads a shocker. When the scrum repeatedly collapses it's invariably because someone is doing something they shouldn't. But Davey just kept re-setting the scrum. On a couple of occasions the the Wuss front row stood up under pressure and what did Davey do? That's right he re-set the scrum. Towards the end Powell was round the wrong side of the scrum and a mile offside and we got a penalty - but not for the offside. It was for Wuss breaking their binding!
That was the frustrating thing. He was pinged time and time again in his own 22 and didn't get a card.