Arriving in Newcastle, the weather forecast had got it completely wrong; it was both wet and cold. Having made our way up to Kingston Park, it was clear that the pre-match warm up from both teams had turned the pitch into what look like a WW1 battlefield. It was clear it was going to be an evening of free flowing rugby, more your stick it up your jumper stuff.

There were some 50+ Sarries stalwarts who had also made the trek up north, and by the time the teams came out, it had stopped raining. We therefore looked forward to the match with optimism. Some of the faithful had attended the Saints game last week and talked of the dominant first half and poor second half. What came over the next 80 minutes was, allegedly, much as same as the Saints game, but perhaps worse.

I made copious notes on who did what in both halves, but it was really quite dull stuff. There wasn’t really anything in terms of quality rugby. The scoring for the record went:

Falcons 0 Sarries 3 Jackson penalty

Falcons 0 Sarries 6 Jackson penalty

Falcons 3 Sarries 6 May penalty

Falcons 3 Sarries 9 Jackson penalty

Half time score

Falcons 8 Sarries 9 Rudd try

Falcons 10 Sarries 9 May conversion

Falcons 13 Sarries 9 May penalty

Final score

Yellow Cards : Rudd – Newcastle in first half for particularly nasty looking spear tackle; Marhsall – Sarries in second half for what looked like persistent encroaching.

Ref: Waynes Barnes had a typical Barnes game with some strange decisions on both sides, ably assisted by Ashley Rowden and AN Other Assistant Ref.

Sarries subs: Visagie for Johnson, Penny for Del, Smith for Vyvyan, Barrell for Saul,

Crowd : 6,200

The first half was all Sarries possession and territory, but no penetration and slow ball out of the ruck area. Failure to convert this possession and territory would ultimately cost them second half.

Second half was the opposite, Newcastle dominating possession and territory. Much of it up the jumper stuff, however their scrum half, Micky Young had a fine game, making quick use of penalties with tap and go which caused Sarries no end of problems. In addition, he made good use of front foot ball off base of the scrum.

More desire and perhaps a stronger need to win the game and avoid relegation made Newcastle eventual worthy winners, and Sarries should have no complaints. On my travels this season, I have seen defeats at Irish and Wasps, when we should have won both games with 70 minutes gone. Here, we only played 40 minutes and the second half was undoubtedly one of the poorest I have seen from a Sarries team in an awful long time.

There wasn’t anyone on the Sarries team to deserve MOTM, the best of a bad bunch was Alex Goode.

I was at the Fans Forum on Wednesday evening and heard a lot from the new CEO about putting bums on seats and also words from Andy Farrell about how well we were going to do in the latter parts of the season and qualify for the Heineken Cup.

If Sarries put in a second half performance like this at the Vic, the CEO will be looking for 15,000 bums to go on the seats; no-one will want to watch this, as it was truly awful stuff. Get it right on the pitch and the crowds will follow.

As for Andy’s words, it’s fairly clear to me that to qualify for the Heineken Cup, the only route is going to be via the ECC. We should be good enough to beat what is a very modest Newcastle team at the Vic, even if a certain JBW is fit and back. That would leave us to probably play Saints on the road in the semi, and this is probably where our season will be defined. You never know with Sarries……………..

For Newcastle:
Tries: Rudd
Cons: May
Pens: May 2

For Saracens:
Pens: Jackson 3

Newcastle: 15 Alex Tait, 14 Danny Williams, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Tane Tu'ipulotu, 11 John Rudd, 10 Tom May, 9 Micky Young, 8 Adam Balding, 7 Ed Williamson, 6 Phil Dowson (c), 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Rob Vickers, 1 David Wilson.
Replacements: 16 Matt Thompson, 17 Jon Golding, 18 Andy Perry, 19 Brent Wilson, 20 Hall Charlton, 21 Rory Clegg, 22 Spencer Davey.

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Richard Haughton, 13 Adam Powell, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Kameli Ratuvou, 10 Glen Jackson, 9 Justin Marshall, 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Andy Saull, 6 Wikus Van Heerden, 5 Hugh Vyvyan, 4 Tom Ryder, 3 Cencus Johnston, 2 Matt Cairns, 1 Nick Lloyd.
Replacements: 16 Andy Kyriacou, 17 Cobus Visagie, 18 Hayden Smith, 19 Don Barrell, 20 Mickey Wilson, 21 Gordon Ross, 22 Rodd Penney.

Venue: Kingston Park
Referee: Wayne Barnes

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