That’s straight from the stable boy’s mouth. How do I know? Well, Jamie Noon helps out in the marketing department at Hardy Greys fishing tackle who had invited me to the game as their guest. He’d been in their offices earlier in the week and as much as admitted they thought they might come off second best.

So, that’s all our internationals back, Tigers playing the best rugby we’ve played for years and the Falcons’ messing their nests! We couldn’t lose!

So Far, So Good

The first 10 minutes produced nothing that damaged my confidence. Aside from a few handling errors that I put down to our international contingent finding their feet, Tigers started out on top. In fact, a glance at my notebook reveals exactly that, ‘Cagey but Ts on top’.

Then, on 13 minutes, it all went pear shaped. A missed tackle in midfield and Falcons had men over on the right. Switching play fluently back to the middle and then back to the right, they sent Tane Tu’ipulotu in for the first try of the night. Thankfully the touch down was wide on the right, which meant a difficult conversion that Tom May pulled to the left of the uprights.

Five – nil shouldn’t have been a problem but it seemed to unsettle our boys while Falcons palpably increased in confidence.  From the restart we were playing vintage rugby. Sadly, it wasn’t the type of vintage rugby I’d been hoping for, more the ‘pre-six nations, hoof the ball downfield and don’t bother chasing it’ type of vintage rugby that we’d played for most of the season under Heyneke. Everyone was guilty of it. Geordan found a blind alley whenever he got the ball and his only answer seemed to be the up and under which might work in ideal conditions but which results, at best, in a 50/50 ball on a dark, damp, windy Kingston Park.

Our kicking from hand was pretty awful and while, in fairness, Falcons put a couple out on the full too, they at least adapted to the conditions quickest and kept the ball in hand as much as possible. Then it started raining.

I’ll be kind and say we weren’t firing. The only possible excuse can be the number of returning players not ‘gelling’ but midway through the half I noted that Cozza is no longer our best ‘eight’, Chutes is no longer our best hooker and Erinle is not even close to the player we signed from Wasps. I hope Varndell is as ineffective at Adams Park as Oogie has been since coming to us. We were desperately missing a straight runner along the lines of Hipkiss or Rabeni at 13.

Toby wasn’t enjoying a great homecoming either. His presence might even have been the reason but the Falcons defence were half a yard faster than him reacting to everything.

Further Behind

A penalty which Tom May bounced off the crossbar and over put Falcons ahead by eight on the half hour and a further three points came when he slotted a drop goal just three minutes later. Falcons were warming to their task and we looked bereft of ideas. The amount of possession we kicked away was appalling. Geordan, Scott Hamilton, Harry Ellis, Ayoola and Toby were all guilty of it. It was as though someone had mistakenly packed the playbook from the turn of the year.

On 35 minutes another Tigers infringement close to the half way line (but very central) gave the Falcons the chance of another pot at goal. However, as if to underline their growing confidence and ambition, Tom May put it out for a lineout. We managed to snuff out that attack but in the dying minutes of the half we were caught out again and this time May made no mistake from the tee to give the Newcastle side a 14-0 halftime lead.

Here’s a Half Time question for you. Which former Tigers employee is now chairman of the New Zealand Basketball League? None other than Sam Rossiter-Stead. SRS has a column in the Falcons matchday programme and in it the former head of Tigers Corporate Relations (now operating in a similar role for the Hurricanes in New Zealand) revealed he’s chairman of the board of the NZBL.

Debacle

Anyway, back to the debacle which was going on out on the turf of Kingston Park.

My only concern before the game had been how well we’d handle Newcastle’s scrum. Apparently Carl Hayman had been a revelation of late but that was the one area where we’d been more than holding our own. We’d started the game with a front row of Boris Stankovich, Chuter and Castro but as the sides left the pitch it looked doubtful that Boris would reappear. He seemed a little unsteady and sure enough, when the teams came back out it was Dan Cole’s turn to shove back at the All Black who is widely rated as one of the best tighthead props in the World.  I won’t revisit this area of the pitch for the remainder of this report but suffice to say, Dan Cole gave as good as he got. The scrum was one area I needn’t have worried about.

As the second half got underway the rain had stopped and Tigers seemed to have taken Cockers half time chat on board. We were much better than we had been in the first 40 and even the kicking addiction seemed to be under control. Sadly, while there seemed to be more purpose to our endeavours, the errors kept undoing any hard work. First, a very promising attack fizzled out for a forward pass and then Peter Browne – on moments earlier as a replacement for Falcon’s captain, Phil Dowson – was delighted to receive the ball from George Chuter on an attacking Tigers line out.

Mistakes aside, Tigers were now looking marginally the better side and on 10 minutes, Falcons were penalised for taking out Ben Kay off the ball. Toby managed to get us on the scoreboard but at 14 – 3, Newcastle could play well within themselves and wait for us to make mistakes.

Cozza Off

As if to underline the fact that this wasn’t to be Tigers night, as Flood retreated from taking the penalty, Cozza was being escorted from the field to be replaced by Ben Pienaar. At the time of writing the extent of his injuries are unclear but if the worst stories are to be believed, this could have been his last game in a Tigers shirt.

If this is beginning to sound like a ‘Falcons won because we were awful’ story then it isn’t meant to. Falcons played well and there’s no getting away from the fact that some of our mistakes were caused by their strength in defence. Similarly, they were happy to capitalise on any of the many mistakes we were making. Take the instance around 15 minutes into the second half when Ben Kay knocked-on. Someone suggested he ought to be called Ben KO rather than Ben K! As soon as the ball spilled it had been whipped away by Falcons and they had a two-man overlap charging towards our line. Only a great tackle by Flood taking man and ball into touch kept them out. Then, just a couple of plays later, Falcons crossed our line for the second time in the evening only for Jamie Noon’s ‘try’ to be adjudged to have been held up. The resulting five-metre scrum saw Falcons make one of their rare mistakes and Flood managed to put the penalty into touch back up near half way.

Minutes later Falcons got another chance as John Rudd hacked on a loose Leicester ball and it was a close run race between he and Flood as to who would get to the ball first. Thankfully, it went dead but the danger was plain to see. Newcastle only needed to wait for our mistakes and capitalise on them.

Midway through the second half Scott Hamilton (who it has to be said had been dragged down to mediocrity by what was going on around him) made way for Johnne Murphy as Cockers attempted to liven things up.

Minutes later another promising Tigers attack fizzled out when Erinle passed the ball straight into touch around 10 feet behind Ben Kay! Usually I’d give the passer the benefit of the doubt and blame the support runner for over running but in this case I’d be lying to spare Ayoola’s embarrassment. I still can’t fathom how he managed a pass so wayward.

Electric

Cockers carried on with the changes. Harry Ellis made way for Ben Youngs and Mefin Davies replaced George Chuter. Things were pretty much all Tigers by this point but every time we looked to threaten, we’d spill the ball or go accidentally offside. With the clock ticking down and Tigers unable to find a way through, it was time for Sam Vesty and Dan Hemingway to try and rescue things. Mauger and Louis Deacon left the field to make way.

There were odd good cameos. Ben Youngs looked electric whenever he got the ball and a great break by Johne came to nothing when the ball was sent the width of the pitch only to be dropped by, of all people, Tom Croft.

With five minutes left on the clock – still time – Toby Flood put a Leicester penalty all of 45 metres for a five metre line out. Mefin put the ball up, Ben Kay took it down and Tigers were camped on the Falcons line right up until the next Tigers accidental offside!! We just couldn’t break them down. A scrum to Falcons and with just seconds left on the clock, it was surely the end of the game? Then it was their turn to make a mistake. The ball was passed back to Falcons’ replacement, Micky Young, to kick dead and end the game but the Tigers youngsters had other ideas, Dan Hemingway burst through to charge down the kick and Ben Youngs followed him to touch down! A thoroughly undeserved bonus point for Tigers!

With Toby Flood adding the conversion, the final score had a look of respectability about it – Falcons 14, Tigers 10. Looks, however, can be deceiving. We’re still top but on this showing, that won’t last. Here’s hoping the squad start to gel quickly because this was as poor a performance as I’ve seen all season.

MOM: From my perspective, Dan Hemingway and Ben Youngs for never giving up. Alternatively, give it to Sale’s Charlie Hodgson for ensuring that Bath didn’t win on the same night.

Newcastle Falcons: Tait (Miller 78); Visser, Noon, Tu'ipulotu, Rudd; May, Charlton (Young 45); Golding (D Wilson 29), Thompson (Vickers 50), Hayman, Parling (Perry 71), Sorenson (Brown 78), Swinson (Winter 42), Wilson, Dowson (capt).

Leicester Tigers: Murphy; Hamilton (J Murphy 58), Erinle, Mauger (Vesty 73), Tuilagi; Flood, Ellis (Youngs 61); Stankovich (Cole 41), Chuter (Davies 64), Castrogiovanni, Deacon (Hemingway 73), Kay, Croft, Woods, Corry (capt; Pienaar 49).

Referee: C White (Gloucestershire)

Attendance 7,614

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