DIY disaster

After an encouraging first half on Saturday the Falcons ended up on the receiving end of a six-try performance from Leicester.  In the end, it might have been better if I’d got my short-lived wish that the match would be postponed.

Since you’re reading this I’m going to assume that you want a bit of a fan’s story / viewpoint rather than a simply blow-by-blow match report, so I’m going to explain a little of the apprehension I had pre-match on Saturday.  My brother was down in London over the weekend fitting a new laminate wood floor in my flat, but once we’d laid down the first row early on Saturday morning we hit a problem – it wasn’t straight.

We wrestled with this problem for an hour or so, trying different things and various Google searches.  I had to leave at 11 to get up to Leicester, and I didn’t want to leave him on his own – but unfortunately (at that point) the match still hadn’t been postponed.  Finally I decided to test the edges of plank we had sawed with a set square – the ends weren’t straight!  Excellent, the rest all were so by the time I left for Leicester half an hour later we had half the bedroom floor done.

Anyway, with Tane Tu’ipulotu making his 50^th Newcastle start, and first of the season, Alan Tait was able to name a strong side, although Kieran Brookes started a senior game at hooker for the first time between Grant Shiells and Micky Ward.  Leicester were hit by country call-ups and injuries but still managed to field five England internationals, including captain Jordan Crane alongside All Black Craig Newby, despite one home fan telling me “we don’t have a back row”.

Jimmy Gopperth put Newcastle ahead in the first couple of minutes through a penalty for offside.  Leicester attempted to play rugby but there fluid passing did not look too dangerous, and indeed it was two Billy Twelvetrees penalties that gave the hosts the lead.

Despite the scrum creaking under Tiger pressure the Falcons were strong at the breakdown and an attritional but exciting first half yielded three more penalties by Gopperth to put us 6-12 up!  Not for the last time during the game I wished the match could have finished then.  It could have been even better if Luke Fielden had managed to get to a kick over the tryline before a defender – my premature one-man celebration on the terrace caused a few chuckles amongst home fans.

But Leicester continued attacking and to the delight of the crowd took a scrum from a penalty under the posts.  With the scrum wheeling clockwise and the ball almost at the line, Micky Young kicked at it in frustration and referee Greg Garner awarded a penalty try, which Twelvetrees converted.

Gopperth attempted but missed a drop-goal in the final seconds of the first half and we went into the interval 13-12 down.

Losing bonus point, would’ve taken that before kick-off.  And yet I couldn’t help thinking that if we could improve discipline and stabilise the scrum, while keeping up the defensive effort, we could well win the match.

Unfortunately the second 40 didn’t work out like that.  In the early minutes Crane, my man of the match, waltzed through some non-existent tackled and by the time anybody bothered trying to stop him, he was practically over the tryline.  The conversion took us out of bonus point range, and the game was probably beyond our reach when Manu Tuilagi took a pass a few metres out and scored Leicester’s third try.

Anthony Allen put a disruptive week behind him to seal the bonus point, powering through from close range by the posts.

Insult was added to injury by Tuilagi catching a loose pass from replacement scrum-half Chris Pilgrim on his own 22 and outpaced Gopperth and Tu’ipulotu down the touchline.  Twelvetrees was probably the only person who cared that he missed the conversion.

Matt Smith put the icing on the Tiger cake with a sixth try – I had long since just wanted the game to end.

The Falcons attacked in the final few minutes, with Tom Catterick now at scrum-half after Pilgrim had gone off injured.  Fielden had dropped the ball in front of the line following a setup from Gopperth before the Tiggers’ sixth try, but scored a consolation for the Falcons from his own chip.  Gopperth converted.

Without knowing what went on in either dressing room at half-time on Saturday, I’d tend to say Leicester were in the end too good for us.  Their squad is enviable but they didn’t just wake up one day with the money and reputation to attract so many good players – it is the result of years (decades) of hard work and sustained success, something we simply can’t match.  As such we struggle to match them on the field more times than not.

We fronted up well in the first half, but poor defending gave Leicester their second try and from there they had the confidence and momentum to go for more.  In some ways, our collapse started with another Do-It-Yourself disaster.

Ally Hogg had a quiet game I thought, but we did have some strong performers, particularly Swinson, Tulip and Young, who seems to be coming into a bit of form, notwithstanding the penalty try.  Gopperth had a canny game too.

A special mention should also go to Darren Fearn, Sean Crombie and James Hall.  Although Leicester had also brought on a number of replacements by the late stages, including two props I’d never heard off, these three Premiership debutants helped dominate the home scrum towards the end of the match.

Too bad we hadn’t been so good in more areas for more of the second half.