Bees Stung (Again) - Falcons 46 Bees 17
By Leipziger
August 30 2004
This victory in our final warm-up match before the start of the season next week against Worcester meant that our pre-season results had gone pretty much as expected. Despite the big scoreline win though, in terms of a performance this match was not the most brilliant I’d seen.
August 30 2004
This victory in our final warm-up match before the start of the season next week against Worcester meant that our pre-season results had gone pretty much as expected. Despite the big scoreline win though, in terms of a performance this match was not the most brilliant I’d seen.
Our first XV was almost as we expect it to be against Worcester, minus Tom May, Jamie Noon, Matt Burke and Stuart Grimes. Luke Gross made his first start for the Falcons alongside Craig Hamilton, while Semo Setiti and Colin Charvis also made their home debuts. Matthew Tait started at centre for the first time.
Just like in Munster, we were able to score an early try, Sofa going over in the left hand corner before Jonny Wilkinson converting. Joe Shaw scored the second try of the evening, before Pertemps pulled a few points back with a penalty, and the full back set up Michael Stephenson to increase our lead to 19-3 with another converted score, and we seemed to be cruising to a solid win. Indeed, Shaw made another try saving tackle at the last on Nick Baxter. However, as Shaun Woof ran through to chase a loose ball just before half time he was beaten to it by Wor Joe, but Shaw flapped at the ball and Baxter scored the away side’s first try in Newcastle. A conversion left us with a 19-10 lead at the break.
The boys emerged after half time with Ed Williamson (or was it Ed Coode, JJ?) replacing Sofa and James Grindal on for Hall Charlton. A penalty from Jonny extended our advantage to 22-10, but Baxter scored another try for the Bees to cut it to 22-17. For the rest of the match, we didn’t really play too well, nor attack too much, but two converted tries from Tait and one from man-of-the-match Stephenson, as well as a penalty from Wilkinson gave us a 46-17 victory at the end of the match.
And so we gained a canny six-try win, but playing badly in the second half was not a good omen, as the better Premiership teams will not let us score three tries while being pushed back into our own half for forty minutes. But never mind, this was just a friendly, we should really reserve judgement until next Sunday at least.
After the game Monkey and I managed to have a word with Mark Wilkinson, who played quite well when he came on tonight. Matthew Tait also ran well from centre, while Stephenson again showed his class and pace that can pierce the best defences. While not denying that Jamie Noon deserves a real chance with England, Mackem Hero Stevo can’t be far behind.
Newcastle: J Shaw 1T (D Walder 66), E Taione (M Wilkinson 51), M Tait 2T, M Mayerhofler, M Stephenson 2T, J Wilkinson 5C 2P, H Charlton (J Grindal 40), I Peel, A Long (M Thompson 40), M Ward (J Isaacson 40), L Gross (A Buist 68), C Hamilton, C Charvis (M McCarthy 66), P Dowson, S Setiti 1T (E Williamson 40).
Bees: S Martin, L Woodard, S Woof, M Davies, N Baxter 1T, T Walsh 1P 2C, P Knight, J Thorp, M Miles, M Long, D Zaltzman, E Orgee, H Fakatau, G Pfister, J Jenner. Subs: E Lewis, M O’Keefe, A Hubbleday, R Merritt, R Hurrell, R Carlton, N Carter, T Richardson, D White, M Woodrow, A Takarangi, S Williams, R Pitrowski
Referee: Dave Pearson
Attendance: 4,503
Many thanks to Mark Smith for the stats on www.newcastle-falcons.co.uk
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