A selection surprise was sprung before kick-off as it was announced that Jonny Wilkinson had been replaced on the bench by Toby Flood, and also controversial was Rob Andrew’s decision to field a completely new front row of Micky Ward, Matt Thompson and Robbie Morris.  In the back row, Cory Harris’ absence was tempered by the fact that Owen Finegan was on the bench ready for his first full game.

We had an early chance to take the lead when Matt Burke and Tom May chased a long kick and forced a penalty on the Bristol line.  Unfortunately, Stuart Grimes dropped the ball after taking a clean catch, but we soon got off the mark when May pressured Bristol into a drop and after a few attacking phases we won a kickable penalty, and David Walder put Newcastle into the lead 3-0.

Bristol came straight back at us, but a forward pass foiled their attack, and we could have extended our lead but from a probable scoring pass from Burke being just too slow for May on the right wing.  It was the visitors though who crossed the line first, Shaun Perry fighting his way to a try after 23 minutes which Jason Strange converted.

Strange increased Bristol’s lead with a penalty after a dangerous break ended in just the three, and then things really heated up when Vaughan Going hit Jamie Noon with a very high tackle.  The referee didn’t seem to see any indiscretion, and so waved play-on, but as Anthony Elliott steamed for the line the man in the middle changed his mind (under crowd pressure, unfortunately) and stopped play.  Going was gone for 10 minutes, but we could have had the try as well.  Walder kicked the penalty in front of the posts.

Strange kicked another Bristol penalty just before half time, to increase their interval lead to 6-13.

At half time Ian Peel replaced Micky Ward and Wor Owen Finegan came on for Mike McCarthy to make his Falcons first team debut.

We attacked for a period in the second half, but Bristol’s defence stood firm and we weren’t able to penetrate.  Finally Walder kicked a long ball and the spell was over, as Tino and Geoff Parling replaced Robbie Morris and the hereto excellent Andy Perry.

Bristol were next to exert some pressure, coming away with three points to extend their lead to 6-16.  We hit straight back, but Walder missed two quick penalties, one lethargically to the left of the posts and another straight in front which North Standers would swear should have counted.

And so we came to the time when the Falcons seem to spring to life – injury time.  Walder scored his third penalty of the day and was then replaced with Toby Flood, who immediately injected some life into proceedings with pace and attacking desire.  We attacked strongly and eventually Noon went over in the corner for a consolation try.  It proved to be that because for the second match in a row we missed a last-kick conversion, this time my man of the match Matt Burke failing to secure a draw.  And so Bristol and we continued our good and bad starts to the season.

To sum up the general tone, we were poor today.  I thought personally that we competed well in the first half, but that is not enough.  If we want to be doing things then we need to be beating teams like Bristol and usually with four tries, not trying to scrape a draw with a last-minute try.  Bath at home now in two weeks is a must win game.  Because of the competitive nature of the Premiership, lose that (assuming nothing at Northampton) and we will really be in the pit come Irish in November.

On the plus side, Owen Finegan showed energy and desire when he was on, barracking team mates (Elliott in particular at one point) in a way Charvis and probably Burke should have but didn’t.  Certainly I am looking forward to seeing more of him.  The lineout was good when Thompson and Long threw simple, but when it went long then the inevitable problems I don’t need to discuss came about.

Our attacking was at times decent, but we rarely got close to the Bristol line and in the end the visitors deserved their win, but it was a game we should have won comfortably.  Early indications are that Rob Andrew is angry about the performance, and he should be.  The 6,000 Geordies who were at Kingston Park today certainly are.

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