Can the Geordies Travel?

By BrianC
November 20 2003

I cannot be sure if this is still the case but a couple of seasons ago Newcastle were unique in that they traveled to away games in a number of people carriers provided by a sponsor rather than in a team coach as used by all the other ZP sides.

London Irish vs. Newcastle Falcons, Madejski Stadium, K.O. 3p.m.

Perhaps their odd method of traveling to away games may go some way to explaining their poor results on the road thus far this season.

Whereas London Irish have played six of their Zurich Premiership games away thus far this season and three at home, Newcastle are the exact mirror of this having played all but three of their league games thus far at Kingston Park. Thus far they have managed four wins out of the nine games however they have not yet once won away from home this season. That said they have never been far from victory in these games picking up losing bonus points in two of them. In the Powergen cup last weekend they did record a comfortable away victory over Rotherham. At home it has been a different story for Newcastle. Amongst their four wins they have managed to claim the scalp of Bath, the only team to have done so in any competition thus far this season. 

Last season we achieved the remarkable feat of beating Newcastle three times. In November we won 16 - 24 at Kingston park. We then played them back to back in the cup and league either side of Christmas. In the cup we again beat them at home 16 - 17, a trip which went down in memory for the champagne choo choo amongst other things. This was followed by a 20 - 0 league victory at the Madejski in the last game of 2002.

Newcastle's star player is fly half Jonny Wilkinson, perhaps fortunately for us he will no doubt be engaged on a field somewhere in the Southern hemisphere this Sunday. His place will probably be taken by Phil Godman, no mean number ten in his own right. The backs, Ben Gollings aside, are not particularly well known but with England under 21 Michael Stephenson and Tom May who managed a hat trick against Gloucester they have thus far proved that they are capable of punching holes in any defense. The forwards are a well respected bunch, players such as Gareth Archer and Epi Taione will certainly present a challenge for our pack.

Given our respective starts to the season we will probably go into this game as favorites. Confidence in our camp will be high after last weeks victory at Kingsholm. We should win it but it will by no means be a pushover, above all we must avoid over confidence such as we showed in the first half of our last home game, against Rotherham. Newcastle will not be as forgiving as they were.