MotM
Safe for another year
MotM
By Leipziger
April 8 2007
The Falcons reached the heady heights of eighth in the Premiership table today with a tense win over Northampton on an Easter afternoon when after the interval the script was thrown out of the stage door.
MotM
April 8 2007
The Falcons reached the heady heights of eighth in the Premiership table today with a tense win over Northampton on an Easter afternoon when after the interval the script was thrown out of the stage door.
Even the most cynical home fan (lol) was predicting a bonus point win, which would keep the Geordies safe, against a side bottom of the table and for whom one of their own fans had predicted 12th place a few months ago.
Everything was going according to plan early in the game for the Falcons (apart from Andy Buist replacing Andy Perry in the team before kick-off), with the Famous Five (our England 4+God) starting together at Kingston Park for the first time this season. It was after only seven minutes that the first try arrived when the Newcastle forwards laid the foundations of a move which ended with Toby Flood taking a ball in the 22 and slicing through the Saints defence to score the opening try, converted by Jonny Wilkinson.
That was expected to be the opening of the floodgates but [you might want to skip the rest of this paragraph due to repetitiveness / boredom] with this being the Falcons it didn’t quite work like that.
The outstanding Jamie Noon continued to make yards in a Falcons back-line which (let’s not forget the numbers only matter at the set-piece) often looked disjointed, but territory was dominated by the home side and Wilkinson kicked two penalties, the first from considerable distance, to put our lads 13-0 up at the break, although but for a superb catch of a crossfield kick by Flood the Saints could well have been on the scoresheet in the first half.
At this point all Geordies expected to be well on their way to a bonus point, but it hadn’t quite worked out like that, despite the marauding runs of Man-of-the-Match Ben Woods and our apparent new full-back Geoff Parling. Northampton were on top throughout the second half and Christian Labit scored his side’s first points with a try near the hour to a stunned sell-out 10,200 crowd.
Within a minute, a mighty roar went up around the ground as one of the KP faithful’s favourite sons, Phil Dowson, returned from what we thought was a season-ending injury and took the field in place of Brent Wilson. It made little difference however and the visitors continued to battle forwards whilst we kicked dead two almost consecutive kick-and-chases.
The Falcons did have their chances though, including a take just yards from the line on the left when our attacker was put into touch with a forearm. Just as he did with a number of high tackles from Northampton throughout the match, referee Chris White ignored the transgression, but a penalty in front of the posts on 65 minutes saw Wilkinson settle the nerves.
Little changed in the game, bar a raft of replacements including Andy Long throwing his first lineout straight to a white shirt. With but a minute left, nine points ahead, the home crowd were begging their players just to keep the ball in tight play and run down the clock. However, as like our previous home game against Saracens, it didn’t happen, as the kick for touch this time saw at least 17 seconds left on the clock.
As the Saints took the throw, the clock dropped to zero and the game was won, any Northampton bonus point now academic to us. Finally the final whistle went, and after a long, hard, often scrappy battle, not what I certainly expected on a sunny Easter afternoon, our team is safe for another season with a visit to Leeds to look forward to in 2007/08.
Yes, today should probably have been a five-pointer, but as Ben Woods says Northampton were fighting for their lives and so it was never going to be easy. The result was the most important thing to banish relegation, and, although the Premiership clubs are apparently going to boycott Europe next year, all the players and fans can do is fight and shout as strongly as they can to secure us the highest position possible in the table. After that, we’ll see what happens.
Everything was going according to plan early in the game for the Falcons (apart from Andy Buist replacing Andy Perry in the team before kick-off), with the Famous Five (our England 4+God) starting together at Kingston Park for the first time this season. It was after only seven minutes that the first try arrived when the Newcastle forwards laid the foundations of a move which ended with Toby Flood taking a ball in the 22 and slicing through the Saints defence to score the opening try, converted by Jonny Wilkinson.
That was expected to be the opening of the floodgates but [you might want to skip the rest of this paragraph due to repetitiveness / boredom] with this being the Falcons it didn’t quite work like that.
The outstanding Jamie Noon continued to make yards in a Falcons back-line which (let’s not forget the numbers only matter at the set-piece) often looked disjointed, but territory was dominated by the home side and Wilkinson kicked two penalties, the first from considerable distance, to put our lads 13-0 up at the break, although but for a superb catch of a crossfield kick by Flood the Saints could well have been on the scoresheet in the first half.
At this point all Geordies expected to be well on their way to a bonus point, but it hadn’t quite worked out like that, despite the marauding runs of Man-of-the-Match Ben Woods and our apparent new full-back Geoff Parling. Northampton were on top throughout the second half and Christian Labit scored his side’s first points with a try near the hour to a stunned sell-out 10,200 crowd.
Within a minute, a mighty roar went up around the ground as one of the KP faithful’s favourite sons, Phil Dowson, returned from what we thought was a season-ending injury and took the field in place of Brent Wilson. It made little difference however and the visitors continued to battle forwards whilst we kicked dead two almost consecutive kick-and-chases.
The Falcons did have their chances though, including a take just yards from the line on the left when our attacker was put into touch with a forearm. Just as he did with a number of high tackles from Northampton throughout the match, referee Chris White ignored the transgression, but a penalty in front of the posts on 65 minutes saw Wilkinson settle the nerves.
Little changed in the game, bar a raft of replacements including Andy Long throwing his first lineout straight to a white shirt. With but a minute left, nine points ahead, the home crowd were begging their players just to keep the ball in tight play and run down the clock. However, as like our previous home game against Saracens, it didn’t happen, as the kick for touch this time saw at least 17 seconds left on the clock.
As the Saints took the throw, the clock dropped to zero and the game was won, any Northampton bonus point now academic to us. Finally the final whistle went, and after a long, hard, often scrappy battle, not what I certainly expected on a sunny Easter afternoon, our team is safe for another season with a visit to Leeds to look forward to in 2007/08.
Yes, today should probably have been a five-pointer, but as Ben Woods says Northampton were fighting for their lives and so it was never going to be easy. The result was the most important thing to banish relegation, and, although the Premiership clubs are apparently going to boycott Europe next year, all the players and fans can do is fight and shout as strongly as they can to secure us the highest position possible in the table. After that, we’ll see what happens.
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