First Half Belonged to Falcons

As can be seen from sequence of events (below)the first half belonged almost entirely to Newcastle but the danger of playing an "in your face" type of defence is the danger of an interception and a break away by the opposing team and this did happen. On one occasion a Leicester player intercepted close to their own twenty-two and looked clear through to score but Leicester were guilty of being a little bit too showy which allowed our defence to scramble back, put in some vital tackles and forced an error giving us turn over ball.

Our line out didn't start too well but did settle down and in the end I think we won more than we lost but there was still a tendency to lose the ball on our own throw at vital times. Our forwards won their fair share of the ball. With Josh Kronfeld playing at seven, I, along with many others, feared the worse and thought he would get amongst our half backs, but bye and large they were well defended by our back row or they extricated themselvesfrom danger quite well. If anything, and I may be being one eyed here, Warren Britz did more damage to Pez then Kronfeld did to Godman. Our three quarters appeared to have gone back to basics, the forwards won the ball and it went through the hands to the wingers who took the ball into contact to be recycled again. This proved to be quite successful and we gained quite a lot of territory this way. Only once did we try the "fancy dan" moves between the backs and got no where fast. Also there were still a few heart stopping moments when we tried to run the ball out of defence, but then again there were times when we tried kicking and the kicks were charged down which was what happened leading to their first try.

The Positives

The positives from the game are that the tackling and defence is there, the commitment is there and the players belief in their own ability is starting to show through. The big negative yesterday was our discipline, not only to have two players sin binned, but twice there was back chat to the referee leading to penalties being moved tem metres forward and they scored a penalty from one.

Although it was certainly a big come back by Leicester there was certainly no sign that we took our foot off the pedal, if anything we tried too hard to defend the lead hence the sin binnings and back chat. Also with out a doubt the 16000 + crowd played their part and the fear of the Leicester players failing before them was probably the difference between the teams in that they were just able to raise their game enough to win.

Newcastle Falcons Team

Ian Peel, Nick Makin, Marius Hurter (replaced by Micky Ward), Garath Archer (replaced by Craig Hamilton), Mark Andrews, John Dunbar (replaced by Phil Dowson), Warren Britz, Hugh Vyvyan, Hall Charlton, Phil Godman, Michael Stephenson, Mark Mayerhofler, Jamie Noon, Tom May, Ben Gollings.

Leicester Tigers Team

Darren Morris, George Chuter, Ricky Nebbett, James Hamilton, Louis Deacon, Will Johnson, Josh Kronfeld (capt.), Adam Balding (replaced by Henry Tuilagi), Harry Ellis (replaced by Austin Healey), Ramiro Pez (replaced by Sam Vesty), John Holtby, Daryl Gibson, Leon Lloyd, Ollie Smith, Tim Stimpson.

Sequence of events

First Half

2 minutes, successful penalty by Newcastle Falcons, 0 –3, Ben Gollings the kicker
5 minutes, missed penalty by Leicester, 0 – 3
8 minutes, successful penalty by Leicester 3 – 3
22 minutes,try for Newcastle Falcons scored by Warren Britz, conversion by Ben Gollings 3 – 10
27 minutes, try for Newcastle Falcons scored by Michael Stephenson, conversion missed 3 –15
35 minutes, successful penalty for Newcastle Falcons 3 – 18, Ben Gollings the kicker
43 minutes, try to Leicester, conversion successful, 10 - 18

Second Half

1 minute successful penalty to Leicester, 13 – 18
4 minutes converted try to Leicester, 20 – 18
11 minutes successful penalty to Leicester 23 - 18
6 minutes Mark Andrews sin binned, taking player out in the air
15 minutes Hugh Vyvyan sin binned, fighting
16 minutes unconverted try to Leicester 28 – 18
22 minutes successful penalty to Newcastle Falcons 28 – 21

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