Having been rocked barely 48 hours before kick-off by the news that Jonny Wilkinson will be injured for at least a month, we moved David Walder to fly-half and Matt Burke back to full-back.  Influential three-quarters Tom May and Jamie Noon returned and with youngster Mathew Tait moving to centre, Epi Taione dropped to the bench.  In the pack Phil Dowson returned after injury while James Isaacson replaced injured hooker Andy Long.  Newport included South African legend Percy Montgomery at centre.

Walder, keeping up his record as the only player to start in every European Cup game the Falcons have played, kicked off in the South Wales rain, and Newport immediately put us under pressure.  Incredibly they couldn’t score a try though, and in probably our only foray into the hosts’ half in the first 30 minutes, Matt Burke scored a penalty, but Ceri Sweeney equalised soon after.  3-3, and for me that would’ve been acceptable at half time, but in a rare attack Tom May chipped ahead to the corner only for the ball to be collected by Hal Luscombe, who passed inside to Kevin Morgan.

Morgan evaded three tackles running infield before attempting to kick away, but the ball was charged down by the muddy figure of Mike McCarthy and before it crossed the dead ball line the flanker scored the game’s first try.  Massive celebrations ensued in Block E of the Hazell’s Stand, me and another Falcon jumping around almost crushing my poor girlfriend between us!  Burke converted, and though Sweeney hit another penalty before the break, we went in at half time 6-10 up.

Still a long way to go, especially as Newport were having all the play, but I still entertained a slight hope that we could pull it off…

In the early periods of the second half we played a lot better attack-wise, Michael Stephenson in particular having a couple of chances to score.  Both Sweeney and Burke missed further penalties before on 67 minutes Luke Gross and Ian Gough got involved in a beast of a fight at a ruck.  Fists flew, Gross even put a knee in Gough’s stomach!  As soon as the referee blew the whistle Gough was substituted due to a bloody eye, but after Gross received a red card so the replacement was ordered from the field as Gough was sin-binned.

14 v 14 for ten minutes until Newport regained their extra man, as the home team battered our line through an alleged ten minutes’ injury time, with each phase moving them closer to what would’ve been a winning score.  Yet each time an attacker drove forward, another Falcon brought him down heroically, with every Falcon in Rodney Parade behind them screaming encouragement to our gladiators.

Newport finally moved the ball to the right where they had four attackers to three defenders. This was it… but the outermost Dragon dropped the pass!  After immediately indicating an advantage, Don Courtney blew his whistle to stop and indicate a scrum to us – and full time!!!  Matt Thompson threw his arms up, David Walder ran to the bench, and on their way off the boys and us supporters beside the tunnel mutually shouted and applauded.  It was fantastic to see the joy and passion in the stands perfectly mirrored on the pitch.

Where do you start in an analysis of this match?  Certainly it was a day that will go down in the history of the club.  No fans and few players present will every forget it, because just as I have rarely seen a team have so much possession and territory against us, so I have NEVER seen our defence so strong for a whole match.  We always seemed to have another defender available.

This win gives us an excellent chance of qualifying, as few would have predicted we’d win (even I didn’t!), but we can go into next week’s match against Perpignan in the confidence that we CAN win huge matches without Jonny Wilkinson and we CAN erect Hadrian’s Wall on our line without Mark Mayerhofler. The whole XV clicked today, and at home or against a lesser side than these Welsh giants I have no doubt we’d have won by 20 or 30 points.  Hopefully we can reproduce today’s defence more regularly and, coupled with our attack from Bath in September, that would be an awesome prospect.

As for individuals, David Walder was Sky’s man of the match for good handling, passing and tactical kicking.  Matt Burke marshalled our defence superbly and again the back row of McCarthy, Charvis and Dowson were magnificent.  Charva in particular had a stormer, carrying the ball excellently, working tirelessly (which nobody should be congratulated for but I mention because his work rate had been questioned pre-season) and being a downright nuisance to Newport at the ruck. His best game for us so far.

Well done to the whole team, to the away fans for finding their voices again (though mostly sitting / standing together helped), and both for the great mutual appreciation at the end. Bring on Perpignan!

Newport Gwent:

Kevin Morgan, Gareth Wyatt, Percy Montgomery, Sione Tuipulotu, Hal Luscombe, Ceri Sweeney 2P, Gareth Cooper, Rod Snow (57 Adam Black), Steve Jones (65 James Richards), Rhys Thomas (57 Chris Anthony), Ian Gough (YC) (75 Peter Sidoli), Michael Owen, Jamie Ringer, Jason Forster ©, Richard Bryan.  Replacements not used: Ross Beattie, Gareth Baber, Nathan Brew.

Newcastle:

Matt Burke 1P 1C, Tom May, Jamie Noon, Matthew Tait, Michael Stephenson, David Walder, James Grindal (51 Hall Charlton), Ian Peel © (40 Marius Hurter, 74 James Isaacson), James Isaacson (40 Matt Thompson), Micky Ward (51 Ian Peel), Luke Gross (RC), Stuart Grimes, Mike McCarthy 1T (59 Semo Sititi), Colin Charvis, Phil Dowson.  Replacements not used: Craig Hamilton, Mark Wilkinson, Epi Taione.

Referee: Don Courtney

Attendance: 8,298

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