2005/06 Review Part One

By Mark H
July 23 2006

As the new season's nearly here, here's a chance to look back at the first part of last season. So, taking a deep breath, here we go...

As summers go, 2005 was a reasonably optimistic one for Newcastle Falcons.  A second World Cup winner from the Australian 1999 vintage had been signed - Owen Finegan - along with English international prop Robbie Morris from Northampton, Italian international prop Tino Paoletti and ex-Royal Marine lock Andy Perry from Plymouth, and winger Anthony Elliott from Sale.  With a fit Jonny Wilkinson, a new captain in Colin Charvis, and a favourable European Challenge Cup draw that would bring Brive, Borders and L'Aquila to Kingston Park, hopes were high that silverware may be on the horizon.

 

So where did it all go wrong?

 

The problems started on the pre-season tour to Japan.  A win and a loss was a surprise; the fact that the aforementioned Wilkinson missed both games with suspected appendicitis was, unfortunately, not, and of all the setbacks he's suffered in the last three years, this was probably the one that hurt the most - totally unrelated to rugby, but which was to cause a longer absence that some of the injuries he's had.  The final pre-season game, at home to Glasgow, was won, and we all looked forward to the start of the Premiership season.

 

The new sponsors, Guinness, must have loved their first match, with Falcons taking an early lead; Charlie Hodgson inspiring the comeback; Wilkinson playing the whole second half; and a late, very late try in the Railway End corner by Anthony Elliott, his second of the evening against his old club, to bring the score to 27-26.  It gave Wilkinson the chance to win the game with the last kick conversion, but from the touchline the ball just failed to fade back, and the game was lost.  It started a trend for Falcons - games not won due to a kick or kicks being missed (not that I could do the job myself).

 

The first home game brought the visit of newly promoted Bristol.  If the defeat at Edgeley Park was disappointing, then this was just plain annoying; Falcons (minus Wilkinson who had succumbed to a appendectomy) didn't turn up, and despite a half time rollicking, were still trailing in injury time when Jamie Noon repeated Elliott's late score of nine days earlier.  It fell to Matt Burke this time to rescue points, but the missed conversion (and his subsequent yell of annoyance) meant a 16-14 defeat, and the worst possible start to the season.

 

It got worse.  News broke on the Thursday that the knock that Phil Dowson had picked up in the Bristol game turned out to be a very serious neck injury that would (at this point) take between six and twelve months to recover from.  Worse still, in one of the midweek scrummaging sessions, Ian Peel had gone down with a neck injury that looked even more serious.  Two weeks into the season, already three players out of action for an indefinite amount of time.

 

Sky had decided to show four Falcons matches before Christmas, and the first of these meant a trip to Northampton for their first home game of the season.  Big crowd, bright sunshine, Carlos Spencer making his home debut - but there was something in the air.  Both Rob Andrew and Dave Walder had spoken at the Thursday press conference of their anger at the Bristol result, and here at Franklin's Gardens it was Walder's show, completely outshining Spencer after the All Black's early class.  An individual chip and chase try, together with two drop goals and five points from Burke, meant a 16-9 win, a first in Northampton since January 1998.

 

Bath then completed September, and after 38 Kingston Park minutes Falcons led 16-3, were in control, and looked to be heading for a first home win.  Matt Stevens' try pegged the half time score back, but it was only the start of 24 unanswered points as Bath went away with a 27-16 win.  Falcons were struggling, and the general antipathy at the end of the game let them know it.

 

Sunday 2nd October brought the first of the new Anglo-Welsh Powergen Cup ties.  It also brought my wedding.  With Sale beaten 34-9, and the updates being fed to me via curious signs being held up across the room, it was two right results in one day.  The second group match saw a rare trip to Stradey Park, and a Sunday afternoon against the Scarlets on proper telly.  Anthony Elliott scored one of Falcons' tries of the season, and that Wilkinson fella emerged from the bench for the first time since the opening day of the season, but a late penalty miss meant a 22-20 reverse.  The hope of progressing into the semi-finals would now require two results to go our way from the last round in December.  In between the cup ties, Grant Anderson, a prop from Edinburgh, joined the club as cover for the front row.

 

It was only five short days before a trip to Welford Road, where that 83-10 nightmare had occurred only eight months before - but then that was against a side with no Burke, no Wilkinson, no Noon.  This Friday night was still a worry though - and the most controversial match of the season.  A 55 minute first half included lengthy injury stoppages, reckless tackles (the worst of which was Harry Ellis' lunge on Wilkinson), curious refereeing and uncontested scrums.

 

Oh, and two red cards as Tony Spreadbury lost control/patience/his mind (delete where applicable) and sent off Julian White and Andy Perry for fighting (although how you can fight when you're being pinned down by another opponent whilst being punched repeatedly I don't know).  With Graham Rowntree having already gone off injured, it meant uncontested scrums for the rest of the evening.  And if you thought the first half was controversial...

 

Tigers stole a try from a driving maul just after the break, perfectly executed and a thing of beauty if you like that sort of thing, but from the conversion, Andy Goode slid the ball a yard wide.  Unless of course, you were the touch judges, who lost flight of the ball and rather than referring Spreadbury to the video referee, stuck their flags up anyway.  Isn't it hard enough already to get results at Pooh Corner?  Falcons though were giving as good as they got, and in only trailing 16-9, were always in with a chance of snatching something from the game (despite butchering a couple of try scoring opportunities, once of which would have seen Jamie Noon with an unchallenged run from halfway under the posts).  When with seven minutes to go Robbie Morris popped up on the wing to score his first Premiership try (and only the second of his career), the small cluster of Falcons at the game went nuts.  Matt Burke, eventually the man of the match, slotted the conversion with consummate ease and we had a draw - potentially.

 

And then came another penalty.  And it was to us.  Oh my God.  With less than two minutes left, Burke had a chance - albeit from 50 metres - to produce a first win here since December 1997.  Miracles didn't happen (for a start, I don't think my heart would have taken it) as the ball went wide, not by much, but wide enough not to be given (although on the evening's evidence, that seemed to be an indeterminate length).  Still not over, Goode in the pocket, but the drop goal went more up than over, and so a 16 all draw - better than hoped for, less than we deserved - was the result.

 

On the Tuesday came the news we had all dreaded - Ian Peel was forced to retire as the neck injury was revealed to have potentially paralysing consequences if he got hit on it again.  It dampened the mood after that Leicester result.  Later that day, Andy Perry picked up a four week suspension for his part in the White incident, whilst White picked up eight weeks out.  The RFU ruling was, as usual, puzzling:-

 

The panel decided that the offence was a mid-range one which would normally attract a sentence of three months. However White was given credit for his plea of guilty at the earliest possible opportunity and his public statements of remorse.

 

The same panel imposed a four weeks suspension on Perry who was found guilty of striking an opponent with his head…Richard Moon, the panel chairman, said that the offence was committed “under extreme provocation and the action was in self-defence and had no obvious effect on the player he struck.”

 

This'd be the guy who was being pinned down then?  Falcons decided not to plead guilt or appeal the verdict; I have a feeling the ban may well have been reduced.

 

The Welford Road draw had galvanised the team though, and with the start of the European Challenge Cup bringing Brive to Kingston Park for a tricky looking game, it was needed.  The rare Saturday kick off - needed because of the Tyne-Wear derby being moved to the Sunday - brought 51 home points, five points on the board, and a considerably easier looking group than it was at lunchtime.  The following Sunday's trip to Galashiels brought another win, 26-11 over Borders, and October had brought three wins, a draw, and a narrow defeat in its five games.  Had the corner been turned?

 

With four league games in November, optimism was high that a move up the league was imminent.  That's the problem with hope; there's a cheery ho at the beginning, and then it'll pe all over you.  Defeats at Gloucester and Saracens, sandwiched around a beating on Sky from London Irish on the occasion of the first Friday Night Live initiative, wrecked any thoughts of immediate upward movement.  With the forwards getting beaten up - nowhere more evidently than in front of the Sky cameras at Vicarage Road - changes were made, as Ross Nesdale was replaced as forwards coach by Peter Walton, making the step up from the Academy and looking to provide the harder edge that was badly needed.

 

Wasps came to Kingston Park on 27th November with Falcons still without a home Premiership win, and what looked to be a season defining game against Leeds just one more league game away.  The champions brought the rain with them, and were ready to take the points away, as they led 15-14 with the countdown clock at zero.  You can't give a penalty away in that situation though, and having done so, it left Dave Walder with a kick within his normal range on a normal day.  This was not a normal day, but the ball was sweetly struck, and did its job.  At last, a home win, and with Leeds starting to revive themselves, a badly needed one.  The game at Headingley on 27th December would still be massive, but there was a cup game to come there first.

 

To progress to the Anglo-Welsh Powergen Cup semi-finals, Falcons needed a win over the Tykes, and a sale win at Llanelli.  Neither came off, Sale's Academy side falling by a point to a near full-strength Scarlets side, but Falcons themselves had only drawn 18-all at Headingley, Burke missing an improbable penalty with the last kick of the game.  Still, if you had to fail to win one of the game against Leeds, this was the one.

 

Whilst the Tykes encountered Perpignan in the Heineken Cup, the Italian minnows L'Aquila were next up for Falcons, and predictably the games both went our way.  When news came back from Italy of an 86-0 away win though, we wondered just what the score at home would end up being.  It turned out 90-14 in the end, with fourteen tries in each game (even with flankers playing on the wing due to injuries, and Matt Burke covering all six back positions on the bench), and qualification was almost assured.

 

In a way, having those soft games before the Leeds clash may have been the worst possible preparation - Tykes had beaten the Catalans at home, and pushed them very close in the Aime Giral, and were so up to speed.  It was definitely the match which would define the following weeks.  A Mathew Tait try and eight points from Burke meant a 13-10 interval lead, which then held for the whole second half.  It may not have been pretty, but the four points were the most vital four points of the season, and the club could look forward to 2006 breathing slightly easier.