Newcastle Falcons

The season is still far from settling down with only 4 games played so far. A win for the Falcons against Worcester was expected, but the work required to achieve that win was not. The Falcons were hardly a team on fire, more like a team awaking from a long sleep.

Then only a week later came the steely discipline which resulted in a mechanical decimation of Bath, despite all their attempts to play a different game entirely.

The first home game has been aptly described as cynical, the Falcons seemingly without a strategy to combat a messy and slowed down game against Quins. The win was more of a relief than a victory.

And on Saturday the Falcons suffered their first defeat of the season, but as it was at Gloucester, and everybody loses at Gloucester these days, what can we learn from that defeat? The studier of form past and present that is Rob Andrew was not shaken by the result. The team did not appear to fall apart, they kept slogging away right up to the last minute. No need to press the panic button, or a wake up call?

Leicester Tigers

So what would a similar type of report on the season so far look like at Welford Road?

The season started with a trip to the North West to take on the on-form team of the moment, Sale. The final result 26 – 19 hides the dominance of Sale against a Leicester side suffering from the same start of season doziness as many a team that weekend. They were off the pace, missing tackles & generally spilling the ball.

The first visitors of the season were Leeds, not the brightest team around so far, and a 42 – 20 win disguises a few Leicester sins. A penalty try against the Tigers for pulling down shows that they are making needless errors of judgement right in front of the ref. Overall an improvement on the week before, but not sparkling stuff.

Things got better for Leicester against the Oirish at the Jetski. London Irish are still not exactly a side to instill fear in the opposition, but a much stronger game gave Leicester a more convincing win even though the score was similar to the previous week, 39 – 22. A lack of discipline, or was it pushing their luck as of last year, had to be punished with yellow cards.

Game 4 at home against Northampton provided the best indicator so far. The early season nonsense has been packed away, and the Saints’ game is a level above Leeds & London Irish. The visitors were clinically taken apart from the outset, ending in a 32 – 13 win for the Tigers. They only leaked a single try and conceded 2 penalties. The yellow cards were in evidence again, something which is becoming too regular, Johnson is too willing to get ‘physical’, and killing the ball gets any ref fiddling with his cards.

When they meet.

I started this preview with the idea that last season’s performance would be no idea of what to expect this season, hence a look back at the early games. It appears that the Leicester recipe is cooking into a similar meal to last season, a mix of aggressive attack and pushing the rules beyond the limit, seasoned with the odd short temper. Johnson, Tulagi & Back are looking particularly dangerous, but the former is liable to take the odd ten minute break from the game. They are shaping up to be top table contenders and are not to be taken lightly.

The Falcons’ game has improved compared to last season in one key area, endurance. Too often last season we saw games thrown away during a silly ten minutes, even during the pounding at Kingsholm, the game was played to the final whistle. Despite the poor performance of the Bath team, the Falcons managed to play their own game throughout, brushing off attempts by Bath to drag the game down.

All this should make for an interesting meeting on Saturday. Leicester will play the sort of game we saw last season, the Falcons should in theory play much better than the 25 all draw the last time Tigger bounced into Kingston Park. So far so good, but add to that mix Mayerhofler watching the game with his feet up, possibly sharing a knee blanket with Joe Shaw, and the lack of a vital number 12 could cause problems. This could prove to be a terrible weak spot, despite the strengthening elsewhere during the summer, and with the TV cameras in place, Noon, Mr Reliable himself, could have another of his shockers.

With my best judgement based on how both teams have measured up so far, and taking into account the ever-present home advantage, I have not the slightest idea on what the result will be. That the game will be good to watch is beyond doubt, and nobody visiting Kingston Park on Saturday should leave disappointed. If the Falcons can play their own game with the same cool that was shown at Bath & Gloucester, they stand a good chance of racking up the points without too many leaks.

With Rob Andrew’s well known trait of blaming results on refereeing standards, I hate to join the chorus, but with the professional way in which Leicester push the game beyond the legal limits, a good 15 points or more could hang on how much they are kept in check by the officials. The rest will depend on the Falcons keeping their nerve, and trying to control the game, rather than any individual heroics. The Leicester game will be predictable enough, it does what it says on the tin, the variables are all with the home team.

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