Jason Spice

The immediate solution to the Falcons’ scrum-half crisis, which saw Joel Hodgson and Luke Fielden play there once Micky Young was replaced at Exeter on Saturday, has been unveiled as New Zealander Jason Spice.

Born in Matamata in December 1974, Spice played for Waikato and Wellington in New Zealand as well as Super rugby for the Blues and Hurricans, before joining Ospreys in 2004.  From there he went on to play for Cardiff Blues for two years where he was in the side that won the 2009 EDF Energy Cup final against Gloucester at Twickenham (injuring an arm in the first couple of minutes), until the Blues signed Gareth Cooper from Gloucester that summer.  He made over 120 appearances over five years in Wales.

Then Spice joined Bristol following their relegation and was appointed first team captain, going on to score six tries in 29 appearances.  But he left in July last year after (according to Wikipedia) the south-west club, having failed to win promotion back to the Premiership, asked players to take a 50 per cent pay cut.  Our new scrum-half apparently bought out his contract at the Memorial Stadium.

He then joined Launceston, or the Cornish All Blacks as they seem to be known, was yellow-carded in a 24-24 draw at home to Tynedale in September.

Spice was most recently seen at Leicester, where he signed a short-term contract despite being reluctantly ready to retire, and was a replacement in the Tigers’ defeat to Australia in November after making his debut from the start against Harlequins in the LV= Cup.

He also started against his former club Ospreys in the same competition and has already been on the same pitch as the current Falcons this season, his farewell appearance for Leicester coming when he replaced James Grindal with ten minutes left in our Premiership defeat at Welford Road last month.

The BBC report of Spice’s signing says that he has joined the Falcons on a pay-as-you-play deal, with no time frame mentioned, so we can conclude he might be here until the end of the season or maybe just until Hall Charlton and/or Chris Pilgrim are fit.

I can’t say I know much about him, and at 36 he is not young, but as a short-term experienced signing I guess we could have done a lot worse.