The day started off badly with the news that key men Matt Burke and Stuart Grimes were not in the XV after all, being replaced by Epi Taione and Ed Williamson (with Mike McCarthy moving to lock) respectively, but Grimes was deemed fit enough to take the bench.  Before the injuries became known, this seemed a huge risk against probably the hungriest and one of the very best sides in England, Williamson making his first Falcons start and Epi his first appearance at centre.

Worse was to follow as after only 1 minute and 15 seconds a chip from fly-half Ross Broadfoot into the right hand corner beat Michael Stephenson and Jamie Noon for Geordan Murphy to score the first try of the game, and Broadfoot converted for a 0-7 lead after about 100 seconds!  We hit back quickly, with Semo Sititi driving his way over the line, but the referee with the help of TV replays decided that he hadn’t grounded the ball and awarded us a 5-metre scrum.  Jonny Wilkinson also missed an early penalty, before Noony’s England rival Ollie Smith almost increased Leicester’s lead after a flapped tackle from Taione, only to be held back himself from the line.

After Broadfoot missed a penalty, we had our second real attack when Taione (to the roar of the Brunton Road End) got the ball in midfield and took two Leicester players to bring him down.  However, a quick pass to Wilkinson was flipped behind his back to Stephenson, and the Mackem Express weaved his way through the away defence to score a brilliant try.  Wilkinson’s conversion levelled the scores at 7-7, before Broadfoot regained Leicester’s advantage with a penalty.  Leicester then had a few attacking phases, and as we killed the ball Roy Maybank warned Wilkinson as to our discipline.  Co-captain Ian Peel’s attempts to also get his tuppence-worth in were met by “One captain please” from the referee.

In the next phase Colin Charvis and Martin Corry engaged in a quite violent punch-up, with the result being that both men spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin for their misdemeanours.  From the ensuing scrum Leicester drove us towards the line, and when hooker Andy Long stood up in the front row Maybank had no option but to award a penalty try, which Broadfoot duly converted.  After half an hour, our forwards were being battered and it looked like it would be a long hard afternoon.

Both number 10s missed penalties before the break, ours coming bizarrely after a high tackle from Martin Johnson on Taione, yet the referee penalised Martin Corry for offside.  Anyway, we were down 7-17 at the break but hopefully some words of wisdom from Andrew, Black and Nesdale could see us pull the performance around, otherwise we’d get a massacre.

In the end a massacre is what we got, but it was the Falcons who made the first meaningful attack in the second half, with Taione charging down a kick from Harry Ellis, but being prevented from chasing the ball by Ellis’ hand on his shirt.  Maybank gave us the penalty, but in error failed to produce a yellow card as Epi only had one man to beat.  Wilkinson took the points for 10-17, but Murphy, taking over the Tigers’ kicking duties, restored the 10 point lead quickly.

Leicester’s third try came from a clearance from David Walder which was taken by Corry on halfway, and he passed to mountain centre Seru Rabeni who cut through our back line for the unconverted score on 53 minutes.  Six minutes later Leicester secured a bonus point when Murphy hit a massive penalty from inside his own half into touch within five metres of our line, and predictably it was Neil Back who was driven over from the lineout.  With Murphy’s conversion, we now trailed 10-32.

We brought on Grimes, James Grindal and Matthew Tait to try to get at least a losing bonus point, and indeed it was the 18-year-old who used his electric pace to score what proved to be an unconverted consolation try after a 5-metre lineout was switched to the left wing.  Within five minutes though, Leicester conned the referee into giving them the opportunity for a fifth try.  Wheeling a five-metre scrum to get nearer to our line in the right hand corner, Tait and Williamson bravely held Corry back, but Maybank deemed it fit to award Leicester another scrum from which Corry again ran through, battering Tait out of the way.  15-37 down, we were already praying for the final whistle.

The icing on the cake for the Tigers was Rabeni’s second score on 78, which Murphy converted, and the referee soon put us out of our misery with the scoreboard reading Newcastle 15 Leicester 44.

Comments from Falcons on this game have ranged from “disgrace” to enquiring about a refund for the performance.  We were indeed very poor, predictable in our attacking and never looking likely to score the six tries which went against us.  But just as the Bath victory didn’t make us the world’s best team, lets not get too carried away the other way either.  The fact is Leicester were quite superb, attacking with skill, power and ferocity which on the day probably no club team could have lived with.  And we are still fifth in the table, and having won two away games can be optimistic about this season.

It is perhaps good to get two terrible defeats and one win in which we played badly out of the way so we can try to pinpoint where things went wrong and improve on them.  After these two defeats, we need SOMETHING at Wasps next Sunday before the European Cup starts, even a losing bonus point will help get our confidence back.  Ever the optimist, I still see no reason why we can’t finish in the top 5, as any team in 4^th-5^th will lose at least once so heavily during the season.  Come on Falcons, lets stay behind our boys!

Positives – not a bad lineout again (why is it only good when we lose), Epi playing decent at centre.

Negatives – terrible scrum, poor tactical kicking, heads dropping and no single leader to slap people around the ear to pick them up.

Fans – good atmosphere in the South Stand as usual, but again it was often lacking at key moments.

Newcastle – D Walder (Tait 66 1T), T May, J Noon, E Taione, M Stephenson 1T, J Wilkinson © 1C 1P, H Charlton (J Grindal 57), I Peel © (M Ward 40), A Long, M Hurter (J Isaacson 74), L Gross, M McCarthy (S Grimes 57), C Charvis (YC), E Williamson, S Sititi (G Parling 80).  Sub not used: T Flood.

Leicester – S Vesty, G Murphy 1T 2C 1P, S Rabeni 2T (A Tuilagi 77), O Smith, J Holtby (M Cornwell 40), R Broadfoot 2C 1P, H Ellis, G Rowntree (D Morris 64), G Chuter, J White, M Johnson © (B Kay 57), L Deacon, B Deacon (W Johnson 73), N Back 1T, M Corry (YC) 1T.  Subs not used: J Buckland, S Bemand.

Referee: Roy Maybank

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