Mark's Team of the Season

By Mark H
May 22 2006

It's that time of year when you can look back and wonder at what has gone on over the season; find the best of the best and try and forget the bad stuff along the way; to try and pick that the team that you'd want to play for you.

I've based my team of 2005/06 purely on what I've seen with my own eyes at games; no television based opinions, no being influenced by others, no past performances taken into account.  It starts with a familiar name.

 

15 Matthew Burke (Falcons) - Still the best full back in the Premiership and as others on this site have said throughout the season, the main reason Falcons finished seventh and not lower.  Top try scorer; top points scorer; top man.  We've got two more years of him at Kingston Park, and we must savour every second of it, as well as pray that he doesn't get injured.

 

14 David Lemi (Bristol) - He arrived last summer as the lesser known of the two Samoans behind Brian Lima, and whilst the Chiropractor hasn't had the big impact that many thought he might have, his compatriot has had an enormous season.  Undoubtedly Bris' most dangerous player, Lemi can - and has - scored from anywhere, and he's got the ability to do it all over again next season, and the next after that.

 

13 Jon Clarke (Northampton) - A very difficult choice between him and Taity, JC gets it simply because I've seen more of him.  Carlos Spencer may have brought many things to the Premiership, but he may end up being best remembered for bringing out the latent talent that Clarke had shown over the previous two seasons at full back or on the wing, and allowing him to express it to the extent that he will, sooner or later, be capped for England.

 

12 Jamie Noon (Falcons) - It remains to be seen this summerthe effect of playing alongside Mike Tindall will have on his international career, but Noonie is still the centre that I would most want in a team playing for me.  I would guess that Andy Robinson might start Catt and 12 and Noon at 13 in the first test, and it will be interesting to see how the expected arrival of Brian Ashton will inspire the pair of them, but I think that it may be time that the doubters are proved wrong, and Jamie cements his England place.

 

11 Andre Snyman (Leeds) - Probably the wrong wing, but I just had to fit him into the team.  For Burke's contribution to Falcons, read Snyman at Leeds.  he impressed every time I saw him, and it came as no surprise that Jake White still thinks highly enough of him to tempt him back to South Africa with the lure of a possible World Cup place.  There would be no more fitting tribute to his quality if he were to attain it.

 

10 Carlos Spencer (Northampton) - Coule there be anyone else?  I'm writing this on a train to Watford, where the afternoon highlights will be paying tribute to Richard Hill, followed by seeing how God operates with the King.  One moment said it al for me this season about Los - running the ball out of danger at Bristol, and combining well enough with Robinson, Cohen and Reihana to be still running to put the ball under the posts at the other end.  (And you thought that I was going to mention the overhead kick against Saracens.  Well, that as well then.)

 

9 Scott Bemand (Leicester) - The only player in the side that I've picked on the strength of one performance, for Tigers at Northampton on Good Friday.  On a night that both sides had to win, he drove Leicester on, making crucial half breaks to make enough time for their backs and doing enough elsewhere that he should have got man of the match (it obviously wasn't in Sky's script).  A surprise England tourist, it will be interesting to follow how the situation at Welford Road develops with both him and Ellis in the England squad.

 

1 Micky Ward (Falcons) - Never, ever, ever lets anyone down.  He almost defines heart, and there was no-one else in contention for this spot.  The rotation at the start of the season didn't work, and it was noticeable that when Peter Walton took charge of the forwards that Micky was an almost permanent fixture in the starting XV on merit.  Very fast developing into a Falcons legend.

 

2 Mark Regan (Bristol) - Mally will love this, the names I've called him over the past two seasons, but Regan's not only satisified with being the biggest wind up merchant in the Premiership, he's also the hardest hooker to play against, and his influence on Bristol cannot be underestimated.  It's been no coincidence that when he's been taken off in the games I've seen, the referee has an easier job whilst Bristol have a harder one - his presence is enormous.

 

3 Pat Barnard (Northampton) - When this man gets fully fit, the rest of the Premiership needs to watch out, because Barnard put in two of the most destructive performances I've ever seen in April, mullering David Flatman of Bath six days before Graham Rowntree gave up trying to scrummage against him and tried anything he knew to stop the madness.  He will get a lot of England caps, the first probably in the Autumn, and could have some serious fun at the World Cup.

 

4 Bob Casey (London Irish) - Toss up between him and Nick Kennedy, also of Irish, but Casey gets it because he's started the Irish games I've seen whilst Kennedy has tended to be on the bench.  He's unfortunate to be in an era where he's had O'Kelly, O'Callaghan, and O'Connell in front of him for international honours, but that's worked in Irish's favour this season more than ever before.

 

5 Geoff Parling (Falcons) - To think that at the start of last season he was outstanding in a 47-3 defeat in a Monday A team match at Northampton, and now he's shining every week in the Falcons first XV is a credit to the effort he's put in and the ability he has.  He must be unlucky not going to Canada for the summer, but then that may well end up working in Falcons' favour, as he'll hit the ground running in August.  There is a big future here.

 

6 Mike McCarthy (Falcons) - Yet another example of the Peter Walton effect.  Criminally ignored for the first half of the season, he came into teh side after Christmas and proved why we were all moaning in the first place that he should have been in the team from the start of the season.  In a way, the end of the season came too early for him - fingers crossed, when he's an automatic choice next season, he can keep the form up.

 

7 Ben Woods (Falcons) – When someone said to me at the media day in August “watch out for Ben Woods now he’s fit”, little did I think that he would be in the team by the third game of the season, and that the fly half he’d have to hunt that day would be Carlos Spencer.  Since then, he’s gone from strength to strength, and deserved his call up for England A.  Yet another one of the youngsters that have flourished under Mr Walton, our forwards coach will no doubt be teaching him every trick in the book (and those not listed) over the next few years.

 

8 Martin Corry (Leicester) – The best 8 in England by a mile – still – and my captain of this rag tag line up.  Considering the unfair media pressure that he’s been under over his England place, let alone the captaincy, Corry has impressed for Tigers whenever I’ve seen him, and is now as big an influence on Leicester as Martin Johnson was at his peak – I can give him no higher praise.  Anyone else wish he’d stayed at Falcons?

 

My bench would be Tom Smith (Saints), David Paice and Nick Kennedy (London Irish), David Seymour (Saracens), Mark Robinson (Saints), Jonny Wilkinson and Mathew Tait.  Who would I like to referee them?  On what I’ve seen this season, David Rose.

 

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Disagree?  Here’s your chance to do exactly the same as I’ve done.  Select your team of the season, based on whatever you wish, with reasons, and send it to us at falconsrugby@yahoo.co.uk.  When I’ve found it under the weight of the spam the in-box gets, I’ll put it on the site.