The last week had been slightly hairy as day after day Tracy and my tickets failed to arrive, some phone calls on Thursday ensured we picked them up easily enough and took our places along with a number of other Falcons fans in the south-east lower area of Twickenham.

The Falcons were (again) not scheduled to play until quite late, 1.15 to be precise, but some interesting opening games saw Gloucester, Bath and a rampant London Irish win their opening games, before Sale defeated Harlequins in our group 21-19, having been 14-0 up and being threatened with defeat.

Worcester, Leeds and Irish were victorious in the next games, before the Falcons finally entered the field (the last team to do so) against Harlequins.  Quins made the early running before we stole the ball and Ollie Phillips’ kick and chase wrong-footed a defender for the first try.  Phillips was again on the scoresheet for the second try, before Paddy Dias rounded the half off, and two tries from Luke Fielden amongst three in the second half secured a good 40-7 win.

The quarter-final draw began to take shape as Worcester and Leeds won their groups, and Leicester secured second place in group C.  The Tigers would play the winner of Sale v Newcastle, and the Falcons begun where they left off in their first game with four first half tries.  Lee Dickson and Adam Dehaty crossed in the second half before the Sharks grabbed a late consolation in our 36-5 win.

The first quarter final saw a seesaw match between Worcester and Bath, but it was the Midlanders who won through with a last second try, before Gloucester (v Leeds) and London Irish (v Sale) also secured last four places.

The Falcons and Leicester then put on one of the games of the day, with two tries apiece in the first half from Tom Croft and Alex Tuilagi for Leicester and Phillips and Tim Visser for us.  In the second half, our scorers combined as Phillips drew the defence to send our favourite Dutchman in to put us in front for the first time.  Luke Fielden extended the lead, but with the clock having been taken off the scoreboard, Falcons around Twickenham became extremely nervous, more so when slack defence let Youngs in for a try, and the Tigers continued to attack until Visser got the ball and kicked for touch to end the tense 22-17 win.

A drum appeared before the first semi-final, between Worcester and London Irish.  However, it and a lot of Oirish fans disappeared soon after the Warriors’ 15-7 victory.

Worcester’s opponents would be either Gloucester or Newcastle, and it looked good when a knock-on set-piece let Phillips in for the first try, before Gloucester hit back with an unconverted try to remain 5-7 behind.  The Falcons then ran rampant, with Fielden, Phillips and Dickson scoring tries to secure a 26-5 win and put their side into their first Middlesex 7s final since 2003.

With a new name set to grace the tournament’s roll of honour, the Falcons and Worcester contested the final with Visser going close early on before being tackled, and Phillips again went over from the left for a 5-0 lead, Ross Batty doubling the advantage before a third try looked to have sealed the victory by half time.

Fans hugged and smiled at the break, 15-0 up in the final, surely the Falcons had the game sewn up, right?  Wrong.

Worcester dominated the early stages of the second half, and two tries put the jitters on.  The second went unconverted – a miss that would prove crucial, as whilst Geordies nibbled their fingernails, a fourth Falcons try sent us into raptures and for once the missed conversion might not have mattered.  20-12, we defended strongly and ran down the clock, Worcester’s last try coming too late to prevent our 20-19 win.

And, for the first time, after a number of Plate victories, Newcastle is now the name on the Middlesex Sevens trophy!

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

Newcastle Falcons Poll