Twickenham in April is but a memory, Twickenham next April now but a fantasy.

Granted, the late withdrawal of Matt Burke did not help, but Joe Shaw came in and performed admirably for a man that had to fly down especially for the match. He certainly filled the shirt (it had Burke’s name blacked out), but lacked that little bit of genius that the Aussie legend has in spades. Time and again Joe was forced into being the last line of defence as Tevita Vaikona broke through Tom May, and he was not found wanting.

As the away team under the cup rules, Falcons kept the black strip, but all too often in the first half the white shirted Sarries went forward like an avalanche. The home forwards assumed an almost total domination in that first forty, hitting the tackles in a way that suggested that they were not going to be passed, EVER. Indeed, it looked for all the world as if Hugh Vyvyan had made it a personal mission to keep his hands on the cup he lifted in April; he had the measure of the lineout calls (helped by a very off day for Matt Thompson and suggesting that Huge had read the code), he rampaged in the loose and, ably assisted by Taine Randell, produced the hard yards (and some ridiculously easy ones) at the rucks to drive the hapless Falcons backwards.

In a way, hapless is a description that’s a bit harsh on a few players. Colin Charvis once again oozed quality, whilst Phil Dowson and Stuart Grimes tried their best to get the mayhem that was the lineout going. Glen Jackson kicked the first points when Charvis was penalised for coming into the side of a ruck which, like most of the work that the home side produced in the first half, was at pace. The only response from Falcons was to try and get a hurried drop goal attempt from Tom May away, although in fairness of the four tried during the afternoon, it was the best.

On the half hour, it wasn’t so much of a case of the sky falling in, but more of the domination finally paying dividends. It just felt like the sky had fallen in. Sarries’ one moment of world class quality came when Mark Bartholomeusz produced an almost lateral cross kick to find Vaikona on the run and with a chance to build up more steam. He evaded May enough to get the ball inside to Kevin Sorrell, whose switch inside to his centre partner Dan Harris created enough space for Bartholomeusz to complete the move he created and run in unchallenged to score. Jackson kicked the extras, but the pain was to get worse.

Or should it be the Taine? On his day, the ex-All Black skipper is peerless, and it was very definitely his day. Within four minutes of the first try, the second went over, when a lineout was became a rolling maul of eight, ten, then twelve players as Harris and Richard Haughton added their, ummm…bulk…managed to get the pile moving trywards, and with the bigger forwards creating a gap, Randell could afford to hang back, complete the Times crossword, and order tea and biscuits before flopping over the line to score. 17-0 with less than 35 minutes on the clock; it was a shambles - the kind of head in your hands shambles that had you wondering whether to call first for heads to roll or more valium.

Indeed, had Haughton gone over in the corner before the first try, it could have been even worse, but he was bundled into touch at the corner flag. Dave Walder’s attempt at running up the touchline was stopped by a cynical tackle from Vaikona which put the fly-half into the advertising hoardings, and although there was a penalty awarded, it would not have been a great shock if Chris White had produced a yellow card.

That card did come out now though, when Kevin Yates, as has seemed to be his wont over the years, took one of his tackles a bit too far and produced a cheap shot on the floor, right in front of Mr White. The question has to be asked, as he started to walk off before the card was produced, is why did he do it? He was having a good enough game dominating Micky Ward not to, and the pressure that this then put his side under was to have an effect that could have swung the match. Fair enough if he’d got a card for cynical play in stopping a try, but this was an act of foul play (the only word being stupidity) virtually on his own ten metre line.

From the penalty, Walder kicked to touch and finally we had an attacking move of note (on such small mercies were we fed). The ball came left to a huge blindside, and Stuart Grimes, scorer in both quarter and semi finals last time round, continued his cup scoring feats and completing the score by going over and through Bartholomeusz. Crucially (as it turned out) Dave Walder missed the conversion, so we had to hope that another score could arrive before the half. It didn’t. The half time view at the bar was that Jonny and Marius were needed very quickly.

Changes were made. From the bar we could see the familiar headband atop Marius, and he was joined by Wilkinson and Andy Long, with Ward, Walder and Thompson sacrificed. Less than five minutes passed before the fourth change, with Mathew Tait coming on for Mark Mayerhofler. Going by the Kiwi’s pre-match warm up, he’s still feeling his way back to full fitness, and you wonder whether or not Tait would have been a better bet from the start.

It took Little ‘Un two touches to make an impact (one more than usual then). The first was to take a Wilkinson pass , create space, and gain about twenty metres to take the ball deep into the Sarries half. The second, in the same move, was to find himself as the last receiver after some good word by Grimes, Noon and May to send him in for the try. Wilkinson nailed the conversion from just inside the touchline (with, it has to be said, a large number of flashbulbs going off), and at 17-12, and as unlikely as it had seemed before Yates went off, there was a game taking place.

It was vital that it could be kept tight. Yet again though, the age old problem of not winning restarts scuppered that. Sarries got the ball back, and promptly kept it. Jackson missed two drop goal attempts, but every time Falcons tried to clear their lines, back the ball came again. Even if only three points were given up, Falcons were still in the game, but Sarries smelt blood, and sensed seven. They didn’t quite manage that, but after the sustained pressure, Randell found himself with a five-on-Joe overlap, and try as he could, the full back (plus a despairing dive from Noonie) couldn’t stop the try. Jackson dragged the conversion wide though, and whilst ten points was better than twelve as an arrears total, it still had Falcons snookered behind the white wall.

A score was needed - urgently. That came after Haughton nearly scored at the wrong end as far as we’re concerned, but Tait’s counter attack and the subsequent follow up from his forwards found Yates on the wrong side of a rolling maul, and he was penalised when he tried to get back on the right side by going through it from the wrong one. An inevitable three points for Jonny right in front, and 22-15 was suddenly manageable. Jackson had a further opportunity to extend the lead, but his penalty rebounded off the upright into the grateful arms of Phil Dowson. It had got to the stage that if the cup was remaining north of the Angel, then Falcons had to score whenever the ball got into home territory.

Enter Jonny. For those critics who think that he’s lost something during his lay off, I just say - watch the second half of this game, Not content with throwing himself into tackles, he produced a piece of magic that he would have been pushed to surpass “even when he was at his very best” (copyright any journo in the national pres over the past four months, particularly those employed by the broadsheets). His lateral run along halfway then saw him jink through a gap, then step inside one man and outside another before offloading inside to Charvis. The twenty metres he’d been given as a start became forty with a bullocking run before he was stopped short of the line. With men over, he let the ball out to Isaacson, then onto an under pressure Shaw, but great hands got the ball to Michael Stephenson to dot down literally in the corner. Four minutes left on the clock, and Jonny had a harder kick than his first to send us heading for extra time. Not to be, as the ball missed narrowly left, and it was suddenly a drop goal contest. Rest assured, there was no way that Chris White was going to end this one with a penalty.

The Sarries defence that had been doing such a good job at blocking the runners now had a new task; get to the fly half. They didn’t manage it, but they did manage to prevent Falcons getting any sort of angle or territory to make any kick straightforward. The first attempt was wide on the left hand side, and Wilkinson’s attempt kept low, but missed left again. That was surely time, but still Chris White played on. And still, and still - indeed, I commented to my fiancé on the way out that it seemed like he was playing until Jonny nailed the kick.

Enter the ninth minute of extra time (by which time it seemed like about twenty seven), and with it surely being the last play, the game seemed to stop. Falcons could ruck forward no more, and the whole ground seemed to stop in anticipation of what was about to happen. Hall Charlton tried to gain the penalty for offside, but Sarries called the play, and as the ball sat at the back of the ruck, we all knew what was coming. The pass came back, the defence came forward…and the ball sailed through the posts to win the World Cup. This, however, was not Sydney; this was Watford, and the ball was struck almost from halfway with no chance of it ever going over.

Over. The cup had gone, thrown away. If the drop goal had gone over, it would had done Sarries the greatest of injustices, as they at least played for eighty minutes and had as much go-forward at the end as they had at the start. One can only wonder, however, what might have happened. Many people on this site have decried Rob Andrew’s substitution policy over recent weeks. This time round, he got the substitutions right (with the possible exception of not having brought Mike McCarthy on earlier than the 72nd minute). Unfortunately though, the changes were only right because he’d got the team selection wrong.

None of us want to see Jonny rushed back, get injured again, and lose him for even longer; but in that second half, he was the game’s most influential player, and very nearly worked the oracle and won it. This was the Powergen Cup, our cup, and now it’s gone.

We all know that Marius is going, and that the remaining props will need to live on without him, but if he’s only got two games left, don’t leave him on the bench for forty minutes when the pack is having their heads shoved up their backsides. This was a winner takes all match, and Marius Hurter is, was, and always will be a winner.

Put it down to experience if you like, but the biggest error in this game may well have been committed in midweek.

A word for the referee - I’m not a Chris White fan, as I find him to be too lenient, but he produced the best refereeing performance I’ve seen all season. With the exception of the Yates incident, this was a hard game played by hard men without malice, helped immensely by a referee who was always in control.

Falcons man of the match? Over 80 minutes it would be Colin Charvis, simply because he was the only one to stand out in that nightmare first half. A Mr Wilkinson was incredibly close though.

And God did we miss the Huge one.