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Falcons v Worcester 6/1/2008

Returning
By Leipziger January 3 2008
Worcester are the Falcons’ first foots into Kingston Park for the second time in three seasons this Sunday, although this time it isn’t on New Years’ Day so we have an extra few days to recover from the inevitable hangovers before rugby recommences.

On January 1st 2006 we avenged Worcester’s victory at KP on their first visit in April 2005 with a 21-15 victory, with a try from Dave Walder and a top-class effort by Matthew Burke which prompted me to start the petition for him to sign a new contract.  God also kicked a conversion and three penalties.  Aisea Havili and captain Tony Windo crossed for the Warriors.

 

Our last visit from the Midlanders came in September 2006, the first Premiership outing of the Friday Night Falcons in front of a worrying 6,654 fans.  Tries from Tom May and Robbie Morris looked like they wouldn’t be enough, until debutant Tim Visser, a second half replacement for Jonny Wilkinson, scored with a last play try.  The missed conversion was incidental as we took the W 20-19.

 

Over the last two seasons, our meetings with Worcester have gone with home advantage each time, with two defeats at Sixways.  This compares strangely to their first Premiership season, 2004/05, when both teams won at the other side’s ground, and we also won our first ever meeting 10-0 at Worcester, in the Cup in January 1998.

 

So far this season Worcester have been embroiled in a two-horse race to finish 11th in the Premiership ahead of Northampton’s expected promotion in the summer, and sit a single point above Leeds despite being winless so far in nine matches, a 24-24 draw at home to Wasps in September the only time they have avoided defeat.

 

Their Christmas programme saw a bonus point defeat at London Irish followed up last week by a 7-10 home loss to Harlequins, former Falcon Loki Crichton’s try and conversion three minutes from time merely a consolation.

 

Worcester have lost every away match this season apart from in Bucharest and Parma in Europe, giving Leeds their only Premiership win so far at Headingley in October.  Ironically (or it would’ve been before last weekend), their last league win on the road was at Sale on March 9th 2007.

 

The Warriors’ league position belies the talent in their squad, with their traditional forward strength supplemented with 19-cap All Black flyer Rico Gear who has four tries in four matches already, although they were all in Europe, Samoan Crichton and South Africa’s Thinus Delport.  Australian fly-half Shane Drahm has also scored well over 600 points in only 61 starts since joining in 2005, whilst former Gloucester speedman Marcel Garvey is always a danger from the wing.

 The pack boasts two monsters in Craig Gillies and Gavin Quinnell, international props Darren Morris and Tevita Taumoepeau and the guile of England international flanker Pat Sanderson, who has seemingly put recent injury problems behind him to start all but one game this season. The Falcons have named an unchanged side after Sunday’s win at Vicarage Road, although Russell Winter is back on the bench.15 Mathew Tait
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon (captain)
12 Toby Flood
11 John Rudd
10 Jonny Wilkinson
9 James Grindal
1 Jon Golding
2 Andy Long
3 Carl Hayman
4 Andy Perry
5 Mark Sorenson
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Brent Wilson

Replacements:
16 Matt Thompson
17 Micky Ward
18 Sean Tomes
19 Russell Winter
20 Lee Dickson
21 Tim Visser
22 Ollie Phillips Worcester include former Falcons fly-half Loki Crichton, who will hopefully get a big cheer despite many Geordie fans deciding he was a bad player on the evidence of one missed kick at Sixways, and Gear starts against former New Zealand team-mate Carl Hayman.15 Thinus Delport
14 Rico Gear
13 Dale Rasmussen
12 Sam Tuitupou
11 Miles Benjamin
10 Loki Crichton
9 Matt Powell1 Darren Morris
2 Aleki Lutui
3 Tevita Taumoepeau
4 Greg Rawlinson
5 Craig Gillies
6 Tom Wood
7 Pat Sanderson (c)
8 Drew Hickey16 Shaun Ruwers
17 Matt Mullan
18 Will Bowley
19 Gavin Quinnell
20 Jonny Arr
21 James Brown
22 Chris Pennell After two wins in the last three games, and an alright performance against Gloucester, there is no excuse not to be there and cheer on the lads on Sunday.  Happy new year everyone, lets make sure it’s a good one on the pitch as well as off it.

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