It was as the saying goes, a game of two halves. The first half illustrated perfectly why the Falcons started the game from a lowly 9^th position in the table, but when they got their act together for only the last 15 minutes of the game, they showed why they have the potential to be top table contenders.

 

The starting line up for the Falcons was without Charvis, Charlton & Grimes who were away on international duties, or in the case of Hall Charlton, just spectating. Mayerhofler was still on the injury list but Academy star Andy Buist was able to record his first start.

 

Leeds Tykes were lacking a fly half with Duncan Hodge injured and Gordon Ross away with Scotland. It was left to newly signed fly half Gareth Wright, the South African who only arrived in Yorkshire this week, to shoulder the burden.

 

Walder kicked the start of an evenly matched contest between two average teams playing average rugby. The Falcons made marginally more territory but Leeds were the first to the points when the Falcons were judged to be offside & conceded a penalty. Former Falcon Tim Stimpson kicked the penalty as part of his duties as fullback, Gordon Wright being sensibly excused such duties for his first game with the Tykes.

 

The Falcons were slightly stirred into some sort of shape and made progress in the right direction. The battle of the forwards was clearly being won by the Newcastle pack with a succession of drives bringing them nearer to the Leeds line.

 

The 15 minute mark saw the Falcons well towards the target, as another forward push bundled up the Leeds defence, the ball was passed quickly over to the left where as always Burke was in the right position at the right time, taking the ball past an overstretched Leeds defensive line to touch down in the corner.

 

Burke missed his own conversion from the touchline, the infamous Kingston Park wind tunnel by the south posts claiming another victim. Walder would take the place kicks for the rest of the game, no doubt his familiarity with Kingston Park in a westerly breeze being judged a valuable weapon.

 

The next 15 minutes saw a return to the starting form for both sides, the Falcons making more of the running but not impressively so. As they again pressed into the Leeds 22, David Rees was either a silly boy or a victim of the referee’s whistle and was sin-binned for killing the ball.

 

If I remember right, Walder opted to kick for territory at this point, something he would continue to make sound judgements on for the rest of the game. Leeds managed to clear to safety and despite the Falcons making their nest in the Leeds 22 for the next 10 minutes they were unable to make use of the one man advantage.

 

The half hour mark brought the first substitutions. Iain Balshaw limped off, obviously in a lot of pain with an upper leg injury to be replaced by  Diego Albanese, and Matt burke to be repaired, Joe Shaw getting his boots dirty for the first time in a few weeks as temporary fullback.

 

Leeds were back to full strength without suffering any loss, and to add insult to injury, Stimpson chalked up another penalty. The repaired Matt Burke returned, Joe having covered for only 10 minutes, long enough to demonstrate his new improved tackling abilities.

 

The game should have trundled on to the half time whistle without much more action, and many a spectator had already decided to beat the queues for the bar. The Falcons were running the ball deep inside their own half when disaster struck.

 

Andy Long passed the ball cleanly to the recently returned Rees, the sort of mistake you just do not make in your own territory. The ball was run wide to Diego Albanese and no effort from the scrambled Falcons defence was ever going to stop him. The half ended with Stimpson converting from a few metres within the touchline to move the scoreboard to 5 – 13.

 

A tea break chat from Rob Andrew instructed for less charging for territory and making more use of territory when you do get it. The result seemed to be worthwhile and the Falcons made more steady but safer progress, again showing themselves to be able to dominate the territorial game.

 

From a big charge they progressed deep into the Leeds half and looked set to stay there all afternoon. A scrum right on the Leeds line stirred the scoreboard operator from his sleep but Leeds turned the ball over & cleared to something more like safety.

 

The scoreboard operator was kept awake however as the Falcons continued to pile on the pressure. Leeds made a peace offering of 3 points for Walder which again he declined & took the ball into the corner.

 

There were more points to be had from this outing and he could sense it. Another penalty was offered which Dowson took quickly and 15 minutes of hard work was rewarded with Burke belting forward for his second try of the afternoon. Walder had an easy conversion to bring the Falcons within a point of taking the lead.

 

The substitution dance started, Leeds making the first moves replacing Gerber with Holt & Morgan for Murphy. Rob was warming up a few substitutions of his own but held his fire for a few more minutes.

 

The Tykes paid a visit into the Newcastle 22 and Sititi in a grip of the vapours decided to make an awful clearance to touch. The Falcons were under pressure and in the scramble conceded a penalty which Stimpson was more than happy to take to extend the lead away from the Falcons again.

 

Gordon Wright was done for, not sure if it was an injury or just enough pressure for such a quick dunking in at the deep end. Stimpson moved to fly half & Tom Biggs replaced at the back.

 

Rob now brought in his fresh cavalry and it was to bring such a spark to the Falcons game. Within a few minutes Mickey Ward was replaced by Isaacson who is improving with every game, McCarthy took up his rightful place as Sititi went for a sit down, and our little turbocharged wonder Mathew Tait replaced Stevo who had put in a far from his usual performance.

 

The Falcons were now running on all cylinders with only 15 minutes to go to the final whistle. The Tykes would soon sense that their fragile lead was doomed.

 

Back into the Leeds 22 they ventured again. The pressure was now pretty constant & when it seemed to be making no progress, Walder took a sensible pop at a drop goal, he missed but as he continues to bring this into his game the points will surely come.

 

It was a different team operating against the Tykes from then on. Walder runs the game well but he seems to need McCarthy there to get the game in order. Tait & Burke seem to communicate across the pitch better than if they were chatting over a pint.

 

The phases were worked across the pitch, the pressure on Leeds continuing towards the inevitable. The inevitable came in the shape of Noon when Walder passed to him as he was able to burst through the last line of Leeds defence and bang a try down right under the posts. The conversion by Walder was a formality and the Falcons moved into the lead.

 

Peel was replaced by Hurter as the last planned move by Rob and the pressure continued towards the Leeds line. Walder took another quick shot at a drop goal as the momentum stagnated again but it was spotted & charged down.

 

All credit is due to the Leeds defence which continued to keep the Falcons from the line but  under that sort of strain a penalty is never far away. Walder was able to tally up another three points as the clock ticked into injury time.

 

It is possible that Noon’s try was more into than between the posts as he headed into the warmth of the changing room with possible concussion, Joe Shaw getting another refresher run out for the last few minutes of play.

 

Matt Burke, as mad as a bag of badgers, charged into the Leeds defence as the Falcons made a last push towards the Leeds line. Leaving a few bits of his face behind he plonked down his third try of the afternoon to end the game with a bonus point and a nice little bit of icing on his man of the match award. Walder converted and the scoreboard ticked up a 29 – 16 win for the Falcons as the final whistle blew.

 

An unnecessarily hard won victory. It is only my opinion and I could be completely wrong, but we seem to have a good little team built around Walder & Burke at the moment, but it only works well with certain other players on the team. Those players should be the very core of the team and should remain so until Jonny returns when some jigging about may be required to find the right mix to complement his different style. Some of the team selection & substitution issues appear to ignore the blindingly obvious and that is costing games.

 

Next week we travel to Reading and it would be a nice experiment to try the twin duets of Walder/McCarthy and Tait/Burke for the full duration, you never know, it may even work.

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