Newcastle lost John Rudd and Joe Shaw to illness and injury before kick-off, which meant Ollie Phillips and last week’s match-winner Tim Visser came in on the wings, Tom May moving into the centre alongside Jamie Noon in a partnership not seen for several years. Eni Gesinde, Tom Dillon and Ross Batty, none of whom had played in the first team before, were on the bench.

A further injury to Hall Charlton in the second half, which saw Tom May and David Wilson amongst others become makeshift scrum-halves, suggests that John Fletcher might be considering a move south for new personnel, although no concrete words have been heard yet.

Today, early penalties were traded by Glen Jackson and Matthew Burke, with Saracens leading 9-3 before Burke made a good cross-field run and offloaded to Noon who went over for the afternoon’s first try, Toby Flood converting to give his side the lead. A few minutes later the hosts kicked a cross-field kick from a maul, and although the ball was carried into touch Saracens were given a penalty. From the resulting lineout and maul, Matthew Cairns peeled off to score.

Kevin Yates was next on the board after a maul was rolled from the touchline under the posts, and Jackson easily kicked his second conversion. The Falcons hit back when former Newcastle and now Saracens [club] captain Hugh Vyvyan was sin-binned in his 22 and from a lineout James Grindal darted in for only his sixth try in over 100 appearances for the club. Flood failed to convert, and also hit the post with a penalty just before the break from halfway, the Fez Boyz leading 23-15.

Minutes into the second half Mike McCarthy was sent to the bin, and Ollie Phillips was forced to kick out after Saracens dropped the ball on their left. Noon then caught the ball in our 22 and steamed forward but referee Ashley Rowden gave our opponents a scrum, and as our six forwards were easily pushed over, Ben Russell touched down for their third try which Jackson converted. Kevin Sorrell then broke through some extremely weak tackling to secure his side’s victory and bonus point.

37-15 down, Newcastle finally got into Saracens’ half through a penalty, moving right before Phillips juggled and was bundled into touch. The game was pulled back for another away penalty, and following some nice passing Hall Charlton dived and forced the ball onto the line – only for the referee to signal crossing. Replacement hooker Shane Byrne was the next scorer not to far left of the posts with the Geordie defence nowhere to be seen.

The Falcons then had a good spell, with Saracens seemingly satisfied with their afternoon’s work, and as we fed left a good opportunity to let Tim Visser in was missed. And our favourite Dutchman was not shy to let his teammates know about it! Visser finally got his try (again after the 80 minutes was up) when Eni Gesinde went on a good run from halfway into the corner, and then Flood came across the field through some lethargic Saracens tackling before Thomas Castaignede decided he wouldn’t let our fly-half through. The Frenchman received a yellow card for an offence in the tackle, and Visser was fed on the left to go over. The conversion again missed, and the final score was 44-20 to Saracens.

Today’s game went as the teams suggested it would – Saracens forwards dominating their opponents and their backs always looking dangerous. The Newcastle backs weren’t bad (apart from Phillips I’m afraid, who showed weak defence and was prone to dropping the ball) when they got the ball, and though the second and back rows showed some strength in the loose, the forwards were often pushed around like raggy dolls and couldn’t get the possession and platforms we needed to make enough incisive attacks. We needed more numbers quicker at the breakdown, and to be breaking the gain line more when we get the nice passing going, but it just didn’t look likely to happen.

Three lousy first halves. Today we saw that the second will not always see an improvement.

Falconsrugby would like to thank Monkey Travel Ltd. for their kind sponsorship of the second half of today’s match report.

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