Team news: Wingers return to face Irish

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alas
Ah You disappeared again.

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AFalcon24
Great to see Adam back and Fearns in, slightly disappointed with no Ah You even on the bench.

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GeordieFalcon

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AFalcon24
Great to see Adam back and Fearns in, slightly disappointed with no Ah You even on the bench.

He went off injured again v GLos didnt he?

If his contract is up in the summer we might not see him in a Falcons shirt again.

Always remember the Ulster fans...they all said theres one hell of a rugby player in there, but you'll rarely see it. They were pretty much spot on.

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wurzelfalcon

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GeordieFalcon

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AFalcon24
Great to see Adam back and Fearns in, slightly disappointed with no Ah You even on the bench.

Sadly it would appear so....
He went off injured again v GLos didnt he?

If his contract is up in the summer we might not see him in a Falcons shirt again.

Always remember the Ulster fans...they all said theres one hell of a rugby player in there, but you'll rarely see it. They were pretty much spot on.

The guys made of glass

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Andy Mac
Probably not worth dredging up the paddy Jackson chat. Plenty of people, me included, wouldn’t pay ticket money to the club if he was playing. (Others wouldn’t have a problem and that’s their choice, but it’s a topic that tends to polarise).

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Andy Mac
Probably not worth dredging up the paddy Jackson chat. Plenty of people, me included, wouldn’t pay ticket money to the club if he was playing. (Others wouldn’t have a problem and that’s their choice, but it’s a topic that tends to polarise).

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pityacker
Week after week awful narrow defending leaving wide open spaces if this is Easters method it's not working.

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SouthFalcon27
By the high tackle framework, how the hell was that not a red?

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Barry555
BONUS POINT TRRRRRRYYYYYYYYY.
We can all shut up now 😂😂😂

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Bedlington Lad
Our backline does not seem to have a clue how to do anything other than pass sideways

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SouthFalcon27
Oh wait that’s more classic Falcons! Simple kick off spilled leading to a try.

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GeordieFalcon
Stevenson gets so little recognition yet performs great.
I can see him moving to centre...his skillset suits it.

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SouthFalcon27
Oh wait that’s more classic Falcons! Simple kick off spilled leading to a try.

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Barry555

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GeordieFalcon
Stevenson gets so little recognition yet performs great.
I can see him moving to centre...his skillset suits it.

Nahhhh I think he’s found his calling on the wing. He has pace , power , he’s got the height for being good in the air and developing great instinct of the defenders and touch line.

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GeordieFalcon

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Barry555

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GeordieFalcon
Stevenson gets so little recognition yet performs great.
I can see him moving to centre...his skillset suits it.

Nahhhh I think he’s found his calling on the wing. He has pace , power , he’s got the height for being good in the air and developing great instinct of the defenders and touch line.

Hes very good there...I just think when you have Ward, Passman and Carreras coming through Stevenson's all round game will be great at 13...

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Barry555

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GeordieFalcon

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Barry555

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GeordieFalcon
Stevenson gets so little recognition yet performs great.
I can see him moving to centre...his skillset suits it.

Nahhhh I think he’s found his calling on the wing. He has pace , power , he’s got the height for being good in the air and developing great instinct of the defenders and touch line.

Hes very good there...I just think when you have Ward, Passman and Carreras coming through Stevenson's all round game will be great at 13...

But at the moment he’s better winger than all those so why would you move him out? He could do a job at 13 but you’d keep him in the wing. Just like goneva never really played 13 for us even though his game suited there he was our best winger.

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matt1il
Sorry, who'd have Jackson ahead of Connon again?

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CharlieDog

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Bedlington Lad
Our backline does not seem to have a clue how to do anything other than pass sideways

Pie
Humble
Eat?

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Barry555
So play him on the wing now? Then few seasons put him at 13 where he’ll have to find his feet again?
We’ve found a class winger in Stevenson. Let him hone his craft and become even better. You don’t change around your best players in their best positions.

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GeordieFalcon

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Barry555
So play him on the wing now? Then few seasons put him at 13 where he’ll have to find his feet again?
We’ve found a class winger in Stevenson. Let him hone his craft and become even better. You don’t change around your best players in their best positions.

Yes but you also look forward and plan accordingly....

Nice position to be in.

At least the wingers actually saw the ball in space today...

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SouthFalcon27
1st half thought we were lucky to be only a point behind, thought the forwards kept us in it.
2nd half a complete team performance. Intensity, power, offloads. What a difference. Thought the starting back row + Fearns were immense. Radwan, Stevenson and Penny are electric.

And if he played for another club McGuigan would be in England conversation.

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aidanb

Who says ring fencing will make@#$%&games ?

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dick g
I take back everything I've written, spoken and thought about the Falcons this season. One game changes it all.

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AJfalc
I wish that I had recorded the game because didn't enjoy it - was waiting for something to go horribly wrong as usual !!
Must admit that I don't know all of the rules but from the puzzled expressions on the players, they were bemused as to some of the decisions against them.

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PurpleGroundhog
Have to endorse what Barry says about Mark Tampin, I’ve been critical of his performances in the past so only fair to give him a pat on the back when he’s played well. I’m hoping he’s just lacked confidence and that yesterday will give him the boost to play like that in future.
As far as the non red card goes, under the current framework for deciding if it was red or yellow, it was a bit confusing to hear the decision making of the referee. However, whilst I understand the need for tackles to move away from the head, I’m glad he wasn’t red carded. I think there’s a world of difference between that tackle and someone charging in with a shoulder to the head of someone trapped in a ruck or maul situation. There’s far too many red cards being bandied about and it’s much better to have played like we did against, mainly, 15 rather than a team a man short.

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Brontosaurus
Going back further, Rotherham in 2003 (56-10), Wasps 2000 (59-21) and Bristol 1997 (50-8). So only the second time ever to do it against a team who didn't go on to finish rock bottom.

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Barry555

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PurpleGroundhog
Have to endorse what Barry says about Mark Tampin, I’ve been critical of his performances in the past so only fair to give him a pat on the back when he’s played well. I’m hoping he’s just lacked confidence and that yesterday will give him the boost to play like that in future.
As far as the non red card goes, under the current framework for deciding if it was red or yellow, it was a bit confusing to hear the decision making of the referee. However, whilst I understand the need for tackles to move away from the head, I’m glad he wasn’t red carded. I think there’s a world of difference between that tackle and someone charging in with a shoulder to the head of someone trapped in a ruck or maul situation. There’s far too many red cards being bandied about and it’s much better to have played like we did against, mainly, 15 rather than a team a man short.

Of course I’d rather play against a team that doesn’t suffer a red card.

But that was a red in how the game is played today. shoulder to the head , with force. There was zero mitigation , Orlando was upright he didn’t dip and Irish player didn’t change his body height. And now suddenly this chat about “ahhhh well he took it well” is now mitigation during the game. Could have resulted in a serious injury.

Head shots have always been a red card and now it’s being policed strictly and I think for the good. Our players wear the sensors for Durham Uni for research into concussion and brain injuries , it’s a serious matter. Players need to adapt and lower their shots , and if they wack people close to the shoulder line then you run the risk of seeing a red if you get it wrong.

Refs not applying consistency and talking themselves out of what is the obvious won’t help. Player safety and health trumps wanting to play the game against 15 players.

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PurpleGroundhog
Barry, I’m aware of why it’s happening and fully agree with the need to take the contact area away from the head, I just have a slightly different opinion on a deliberate barge to the head to someone who gets it wrong making a genuine attempt to tackle. If someone deliberately drove a car at me, knowing the potential outcome, I’d expect the punishment for them to be worse than someone who clipped me thinking they could get past when there wasn’t enough room.
It’s just a different opinion.

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Bedlington Lad
I meant to add that I thought the TOM suggested another look after the ref said red and swayed the decision which I thought was a disgrace. Red all day in my book.

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aidanb

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Bedlington Lad
I meant to add that I thought the TOM suggested another look after the ref said red and swayed the decision which I thought was a disgrace. Red all day in my book.

Yes the TMO heard the ref say red card and said “I’m going to show you another angle and look at the leg drive, he drives through the contact area and keeps going”
The triggered the ref to acknowledge some subset of the rule and come down to yellow.

We may not agree on it being a red but the officials obv reminded themselves at a rule or an agreed interpretation

Which means he will prob get the assessors tick for it

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CharlieDog
3 comments I would make on the card incident:
Firstly I think it was a red all day long under recent evidence.
Secondly, having watched the game again, I dispute there was any leg drive from Orlando after impact, he was leaning backwards and just trying to stay on his feet.
Thirdly, given the players are wearing impact sensors, I would be interested to know whether that impact to the chin measured any higher than a good tackle just below neck height - I have a feeling a chest high tackle could cause more whiplash effect?

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aidanb
Penny can cover wing and centre as well so we have all sorts of options.
When everyone is fit it will be tough to see who gets in but

A back three of
Brown Penny
Radwan
Stevenson
And a centre pairing of Orlando and Burrell

Then we can add
Brown
Wacececoke
Flood

What a set up it is.

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alas
If he were truly Ah You-eqsue, he'd have gone off injured.

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Rogerandout
The tight five gave us parity in the set piece.
The Back Row were dominant.
Schreuder moved the ball quicker.
Connon kicked a 100% record and not easy either.
Centres defended resolutely.
Stevenson, Penny and Radwan were superior to their more acclaimed opposite numbers.
Mcguigan and Stevenson were the stand out performers for me. Previously when without Graham we have struggled to get that go forward but we had it this week without him.
Marvellous performance.

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Barry555
I think a lot of it is mindset. That wasn’t a poor Irish team. That was an Irish team loaded with internationals. And that second half we dominated , we were the aggressors and there was a swag about us. If we go into every game like that then we will be happy and have a good chance of beating teams.
I didn’t notice our tight 5 set piece that much because I was too busy watching them carrying , offloading and being ball players! Was great to see.

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GeordieFalcon

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Barry555
I think a lot of it is mindset. That wasn’t a poor Irish team. That was an Irish team loaded with internationals. And that second half we dominated , we were the aggressors and there was a swag about us. If we go into every game like that then we will be happy and have a good chance of beating teams.
I didn’t notice our tight 5 set piece that much because I was too busy watching them carrying , offloading and being ball players! Was great to see.

Obviously we have to play in the right areas...be tactically astute. Kick for territory when required etc. But then when its on...open it up like we did on Saturday...

The problem is the lads have shown us they CAN play like that ...so we have expectations now.

And Budget isnt in the conversation ...

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Rogerandout
How good was that second half.
McGuigan and Stevenson as bolsters for the Lions, or more likely the England summer tour assuming there is one of course.

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Andy Mac
I seem to remember the rumours when mcguigan left was that he’d go to Ireland to pursue honours there, but ended up going to tigers instead so presumably didn’t pursue it?
I may have made that up, though... struggle to remember what I had for breakfast let alone a few seasons ago!

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Putter1981
I think Phil Van Der Walt is an immense player, just oozes class. When all players are fully fit, we now have depth in the pack.
Feel for mark wilson. Due to England’s shocking 6 Nations he has been overlooked by Garland who in the past said he was a phenomenal player at a dinner I attended.

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GeordieFalcon
Can someone confirm to me the stat on Radwans try scoring....they mentoned it on Prem Rugby
It was something like 40 tries in 35 games.

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steve1888
They have been fantastic this season though and ran some teams ragged this season.

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GeordieFalcon
Look at Stevenson at the weekend....a player very much under the radar compared to Radwan.
Give him the ball with a bit of space and the lad scores a cracking try...with power and finishing skill.

Im highly critical of our performances at times and i dont apologise...
Generally its because i really believe we have some cracking players...and the coaches dont set the gameplans to get the best out of them.

Thats why when other fans push others ahead...i get very defensive.

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CharlieDog

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GeordieFalcon
Look at Stevenson at the weekend....a player very much under the radar compared to Radwan.
Give him the ball with a bit of space and the lad scores a cracking try...with power and finishing skill.

Im highly critical of our performances at times and i dont apologise...
Generally its because i really believe we have some cracking players...and the coaches dont set the gameplans to get the best out of them.

Thats why when other fans push others ahead...i get very defensive.

And no one should object to that - we all have our favourites and style of play - I like to watch 7's rugby for what it is and obviously love to see the Falcons score 50+ but have mixed feelings about the game on Sunday (Q v W), entertaining yes, but was it good rugby...... no! In my younger days playing local rugby, one of the best games was a 3-0 win (I was a slow prop!).

The team has to get into the right position on the pitch first before they can let loose - the coaches identified that the Irish defence was such that we could - and did - against most sides this won't work.

In my opinion we play to win first, stop the other side scoring second and flair comes third - it's great if we can do all three but the other two come first