Goodbye with a try

Moods were dampened by April’s trip to Adams Park for the GP game against Wasps: in a feeble and diffident encounter, the boot dominated with Danny Dipsatranny vying for domination over his counterpart, Tom May. Wasps emerged the eventual winners, but you would have to argue that in a dour 12-6 game, there was no deserved winner. A draw would have been the fairer result on balance. Indeed, the game might have swung the way of the Northerners apart from dogged Wasps defence at the death with the tryline beckoning for the Falcons.

The run-in looked daunting for the Falcons: an ECC semi-final against a troubled Saracens side, rocked by player mismanagement rumours and dissent in the ranks regarding a South African takeover in the off-season plus the departure of Eddie Jones as head coach was next up, to be followed by two more GP games against Bath at Kingston Park and a seasonal finale at The Stoop against the mighty Quins.

News of the devastating earthquake in L’Aquila prompted a swift response from the Supporters Club and to date, over £1000 has been raised for the victims and their families thanks to the generosity of home and away fans alike. It’s times like this when the matter of league position and wins and losses and backbiting and bickering seems truly immaterial and the bond shared by rugby fans the world over becomes the most important thing – a worthwhile lesson learned in tragic circumstances.

More free travel encouraged over 200 fans to travel to Vicarage Road on the Supporters Club coaches and provide an impressive aural accompaniment to the on-pitch action: once more, the travelling malaise struck, with the Falcons appearing totally bereft of ideas and lacking in guts, passion and determination. Saracens put themselves through to a semi-final against Worcester thanks to a convincing and deserved 32-13 win over a feeble Falcons squad. Tries from Williams and Dowson gave little hope to a team that always looked on the back foot and were all to easily beaten into submission by a fired-up Saracens squad – it was as if the resurgence of late had never happened at all and we were back to the bad old days of leaky defence and little attacking nous.

However, it was the table position that was all important. A potential HC spot awaited seventh place in the table and it was still theoretically possible for us to manage to achieve that if we could win our last two league games and if other results went our way.

News began to emerge of new signings to plug the holes left by departing stars: James Hudson from London Irish was announced as the replacement for Crazylegs Parling, Josh Afu came into the side from Doncaster and Filipo Levi was announced as having signed from the Ospreys more recently. Rumours abound of Charlie Amesbury’s signing from Harlequins as well as a top-class flyhalf to come in for the departing Tom May and (probably) departing Jonny Wilkinson and Rory Clegg.

Bath came north for the final home game of the season having won comfortably at The Rec earlier in the year – again, a game of two distinct halves beckoned. The first half saw the Falcons outscore the visitors 14-0 thanks to well-worked tries from Williams and Young and hinted at another repeat of the Leicester game; it was thrown away in the second half by poor control and game management which saw Bath head for the changing rooms with a slender one point victory courtesy of tries from Claassens and Hape plus five points from the boot of Davis. The Kingston Park crowd vented its frustration at the apparent time-wasting tactics of the Bath pack in particular and this backdrop proved a disappointing end to the home season with only one away game left from which to salvage some degree of pride in a season of underachievement.

For the final time, the Falcons boarded the team bus and headed south to The Stoop – an emotional occasion given the number of departing players who were hoping to go out with a bang rather than a whimper. Harlequins had it all to play for: a bonus point victory would see then guaranteed a home playoff semi-final whereas the Falcons essentially faced a meaningless and uphill task in trying to come away from Twickenham with anything other than a beating.

And so it was to prove: a spectacular first half display of intelligence, creativity and guile from Quins saw them run away with the game, ending 31-12 winners. The departing Geoff Parling bagged a try on his swansong appearance and another from Hall Charlton spared too many Northern blushes but didn’t exactly provide a fitting send off for so many players who’ve given their all to the club.

Tenth overall in the table; the main aim for this season was to avoid relegation which we did. But it’s so disappointing to think of what might have been. Recruitment and retention are issues that are going to dog our club all through next season – it remains to be seen whether the players we are currently chasing will add enough to the squad to make us anything less than relegation favourites again next season.

Topsy-turvy. That’s the best way I can describe the season we’ve just been through. It’s been a season of great highs and depressingly familiar lows; the euphoria of that streak-opening win against Gloucester, the win against Leicester, THAT game at Bristol ...... temper these memories with those desperate losses at Saracens, Irish and Harlequins and the apparent haemorrhaging of quality players from key positions. It’s not the best way to go into the off-season and prepare for 2009-2010 but then, who said it was going to be easy?

See you next season.

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