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Falcons 20 - Wuss 19. Leipy's report
By Leipziger
September 10 2006
The Falcons came back from 16 points down at home to Worcester to win 20-19 with a last-play try from Dutch debutant Tim Visser. Visser replaced the injured Jonny Wilkinson in the second half, and he and Joe Shaw inspired the late show which also saw Tom May and Robbie Morris on the scoresheet.

As at Northampton, the Falcons produced an awful first half, with Ollie Phillips having to take a cross-field kick from Worcester after they stole a lineout.  Shane Drahm opened the scoring with a penalty after a quarter of an hour but Wilkinson quickly equalised, before Drahm struck again.  The Falcons put together a decent string of running attacks, however from a loose pass on the Worcester right, Marcel Garvey grabbed the ball and legged it from his own 22 to score a fantastic try which Drahm converted.

 

Jamie Noon fought his way over through a couple of tackles and touched the ball down on the line, but was penalised for a double movement, and then we knocked on after a lineout in the Worcester 22.  A further Worcester penalty increased their lead and Matthew Burke was forced to kick clear, and just before half time from a lineout we were pushed towards the line like rag dolls, but we were able to survive any more damage until the break, going in 3-16 down.

 

Initially in the second half things didn’t go much better, despite the introduction of Joe Shaw, David Wilson and Mike McCarthy, as Worcester went through some weak tackling and almost scored on the left.  Jonny Wilkinson was then helped from the field having injured a knee, and was replaced by Tim Visser, who made his Premiership debut on the wing.  In possession we were still sloppy with Toby Flood guilty of poor passing on his own line, and Drahm kicked a fourth penalty.

 

However, we went straight upfield and Tom May beat a defender to finally score our first try of the night.  This was the cue for the Falcons to start attacking more often and more potently, assisted by Chris Horsman and then Kai Horstmann being sin-binned.  From a good kick to the corner, Flood found himself with the line beckoning but dropped the ball, but with minutes left Robbie Morris crashed over and Flood’s conversion left us with a four point deficit to make up.  The 6,654 in attendance screaming, Newcastle attacked relentlessly before finally Visser beat several opponents and dived over for the winning try after the clock had already hit zero.  Flood’s missed conversion was academic, and the Falcons had their first win of the season.

 

We have now played two similar matches, performing poorly in the first half and making a comeback in the second half.  However, we know from Northampton that we cannot always rely on this, and with John Fletcher’s honeymoon period emphatically over, we need to start doing better earlier in matches if we are going to have a season free of relegation worries.

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