Falcons beaten by Irish 21 - 15
By Leipziger
April 19 2005
We have won and lost many matches, including Cup Finals, in the dying seconds, but unfortunately that doesn’t make it feel any better when we go down to late scores, as happened this afternoon at the Madejski Stadium.
April 19 2005
We have won and lost many matches, including Cup Finals, in the dying seconds, but unfortunately that doesn’t make it feel any better when we go down to late scores, as happened this afternoon at the Madejski Stadium.
But in front of 9,560 in Reading today, our Falcons put in a gutsy performance and should have beaten London Irish to move up the table, instead of losing 21-15 and slipping to seventh. But that’s life.
Rob Andrew’s team selection for this game threw up a few positive and negative talking points, respectively the return, as replacement, of defensive guru Mark Mayerhofler and the benching of our two best players this season, Michael Stephenson and Mike McCarthy. An apparent dead leg could explain the former, but no fan understood the latter, and this game provided no justification that Semo Sititi is a better choice at blindside.
Against a physical London Irish side we would need our best pack on the pitch (notwithstanding Stuart Grimes’ international-enforced absence), not on the bench. Marius Hurter’s selection as a replacement was similarly baffling.
All that said, in the match itself we didn’t do too badly. We scored the opening try after just five minutes when David Walder caught a stray pass from Mark Mapletoft in our half, sprinted the length of the pitch and touched down under the posts, Matt Burke adding the extra two points. We dominated for much of the first half, which was remarkable considering our abysmal lineout. Whether it was the throwing, jumping, or both, it needs sorted!
Mapletoft scored a penalty to cut our lead, before Walder had a kick charged down by Irish scrum-half Paul Hodgson and that most underrated of players Mike Catt chased the loose ball to score the Exiles’ first try. Against the run of play, we were 8-7 down, and were it not for Mapletoft missing another penalty it could’ve been worse.
But our Newcastle retook the lead just before half time with a simple penalty from Burke just before half time, or so I thought as I headed for a can and a pint. On returning two minutes I discovered our lads awaiting Burke kicking a conversion and the scoreline 8-15! Aargh!
After being insulted by Monkey (though nothing too nasty in front of the little one gladly!), JJ proceeded to describe how Micky Ward had caught a pass and ran 50 metres to score! Taking that with a pinch of salt, DJMC gave a more realistic version of events, namely that a mammoth kick from Walder brought a lineout in the right hand corner, and after we stole the ball Phil Dowson was driven over the line.
I did see myself that Burke missed the conversion however, but still most Falcons seemed satisfied with the 8-15 scoreline, as well as our performance, although if we’d capitalised on all our chances we should’ve been even further ahead.
The second 40 were more even, but we still played very well, Irish’s tactics merely confined to bombarding Burke and May with high balls. All this brought initially was two more Mapletoft penalties, as our defence held firm. As usual we made a lot of replacements at once – Mayerhofler, Grindal, Isaacson and Buist coming on for Taione, Charlton, Ward and Hamilton, and a few minutes later McCarthy finally coming on for Sofa.
Why we didn’t see Stevo and Hurter I’ll never know. It didn’t bring the desired result though, as after five minutes of injury time and multiple set plays, Irish drove Hodgson over for the winning try, which Barry Everitt converted.
Suddenly the home fans, apart from a small pocket quiet all day, sprang into life all around us, jumping and cheering. There was time for one final play apparently, but predictably we lost the kick-off and Irish kicked into touch for the referee to blow for full time.
And so we lost 21-15, a game we should have won. But this is what it’s like being a Falcon – everyone knows that it’s never over until it’s over. A losing bonus point is what many predicted, but few would have been and will be satisfied with because if we want to finish in the top 5, these are the crucial games we should be winning, against teams around us in the table who are of a similar standard to ourselves. That we didn’t is a serious blow to our ambitions in the Premiership this season, and it is now very possible that, league-wise, we have nothing to look forward to but yet another half season of mid-table obscurity.
On the plus side, Epi Taione had another good game at centre today, despite still being prone to buttery fingers on occasion. Mathew Tait however was my man of the match, as usual a useful attacker, but he also put in his fair share of big tackles, proving that despite his slight frame he may still develop into an excellent defender. It was also fantastic to see Mark Mayerhofler back – how our defence needs him!
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