Newcastle Falcons

Newcastle Falcons team to face Saracens
15 Simon Hammersley
14 Alex Tait
13 Chris Harris
12 Josh Matavesi
11 Vereniki Goneva
10 Joel Hodgson
9 Sonatane Takulua
1 Rob Vickers
2 Scott Lawson
3 Jon Welsh
4 Calum Green
5 Sean Robinson
6 Mark Wilson
7 Will Welch (captain)
8 Nili Latu
Replacements
16 Santiago Socino
17 Sami Mavinga
18 Trevor Davison
19 Will Witty
20 Ally Hogg
21 Sam Stuart
22 Juan Pablo Socino
23 Sinoti Sinoti

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Onwards and Upwards!

From Offy

[www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk]

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Onwards and Upwards!

15 Alex Goode (233)
14 Liam Williams (1)
13 Marcelo Bosch (98)
12 Brad Barritt (c) (197)
11 Chris Wyles (229)
10 Owen Farrell (153)
9 Ben Spencer (102)

1 Mako Vunipola (121)
2 Jamie George (173)
3 Juan Figallo (60)
4 Nick Isiekwe (8)
5 Maro Itoje (77)
6 Michael Rhodes (59)
7 Schalk Burger (28)
8 Billy Vunipola (78)

16 Christopher Tolofua (1)
17 Hayden Thompson-Stringer (10)
18 Kieran Longbottom (6)
19 Dominic Day (2)
20 Jackson Wray (175)
21 Richard Wigglesworth (188)
22 Nick Tompkins (59)
23 Sean Maitland (22)

That's one hell of a sarries team. This could be a long and painful night tomorrow

Yikes, Saracens are just a rugby machine. I'd take any type of bonus points.

Good to see Sinoti back in contention.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 15/09/2017 11:22 by NorfolkFalcon.

Sill no Toby Flood?

I just hope the lads enjoy it, it's a big occasion for a lot of these guys, just go out, play your patterns and have some fun, because loooking at Saracens side I expect nothing from this. So yeah just have some fun and give it a crack.

Credit to all the Falcons fans out there now. Give an extra shout for me.

Some team that for Sarries, looking forward to it.

Quote:

Falcons_Thunder
That's one hell of a sarries team. This could be a long and painful night tomorrow

Quote:

NorfolkFalcon
Yikes, Saracens are just a rugby machine. I'd take any type of bonus points.
Good to see Sinoti back in contention.

I get what you both mean, but our guys will surely be looking at themselves and fancy the chance to stuff it up them.

I like our side these days and I like the fact we are looking to take people on not survive against them. i.e. go out to win rather than go out not to get beaten

Quote:

falconsfan07
I just hope the lads enjoy it, it's a big occasion for a lot of these guys, just go out, play your patterns and have some fun, because loooking at Saracens side I expect nothing from this. So yeah just have some fun and give it a crack.
Credit to all the Falcons fans out there now. Give an extra shout for me.

FF07 - one of our West Standers is out there! Sadly not I. Keep an eye out for our 4 falcon flag combo with a chequered flag attached. The yanks are gonna love it - it's a big'n!

From a Saracens fan, falcons have some very dangerous players in that squad, your confidence must be sky high, it's in a neutral venue, anything can happen, here's hoping for a positive impact and s good game, safe travels to those who have gone and may the best team win

Quote:

falconbear

Quote:

falconsfan07
I just hope the lads enjoy it, it's a big occasion for a lot of these guys, just go out, play your patterns and have some fun, because loooking at Saracens side I expect nothing from this. So yeah just have some fun and give it a crack.
Credit to all the Falcons fans out there now. Give an extra shout for me.

FF07 - one of our West Standers is out there! Sadly not I. Keep an eye out for our 4 falcon flag combo with a chequered flag attached. The yanks are gonna love it - it's a big'n!

That's class! Will give the boys a lift seeing familiar faces.

BEST fans in the league!

I intend to be at least mildly drunk by kick off so the Sarries team doesn't frighten me one jot.


Just look on the bright side, if we do somehow manage a win, and anything could happen, we will be rightly top of the pops of the table.

Now that will be a fine excuse for another sherbet.

Also I suppose that line up also puts the rumours about leaving star new signings to bed. Still no sign of Flood, DTH, Mermoz etc.

Quote:

aidanb

Quote:

Falcons_Thunder
That's one hell of a sarries team. This could be a long and painful night tomorrow

Quote:

NorfolkFalcon
Yikes, Saracens are just a rugby machine. I'd take any type of bonus points.
Good to see Sinoti back in contention.

I get what you both mean, but our guys will surely be looking at themselves and fancy the chance to stuff it up them.


I like our side these days and I like the fact we are looking to take people on not survive against them. i.e. go out to win rather than go out not to get beaten

Yeah I get what you are saying but. Look at that sarries team I'm envious. 5lions in that team

Quote:

Seany_Boy0511
From a Saracens fan, falcons have some very dangerous players in that squad, your confidence must be sky high, it's in a neutral venue, anything can happen, here's hoping for a positive impact and s good game, safe travels to those who have gone and may the best team win

you can keep your best team winning theory, I just want the Falcons to win

That Saracens team would beat most national teams outside the top 3 or 4 .

Just what is up with Flood? If this keeps up we will not get the monies worth from him, I hope he is not going to turn into a wilko always injured

You expect the club to tell you that lol

I had to ask a mate who plays for Westoe to find the crack re big Davie Wilson.

Hamstring strain.

Good to see a bit of continuity from the Falcons, injuries or not. Looking forward to seeing Goneva in action from the start.
But, as mentioned, that is a hell of a Saracens side, and pretty much their first choice fifteen, going to be a really really tough game to get a result, but looking forward to seeing how far we have really come along.

Last week Deano said 1-2 weeks for Flood. So hopefully next week

Quote:

pityacker
That Saracens team would beat most national teams outside the top 3 or 4 .

But not Bath.

Sarries didn't start with such a strong team against Bath. Farrell only played the last few minutes if not mistaken and Billy Vunipola wasn't even in the team. Just those two add 25% to that Sarries team imo.

Quote:

lizard118
Sarries didn't start with such a strong team against Bath. Farrell only played the last few minutes if not mistaken and Billy Vunipola wasn't even in the team. Just those two add 25% to that Sarries team imo.

Two absolutely world-class players there, to add to an already fantastic team.

Still, our team looks good too so we should be able to give Saracens a pretty good game, and in a 'cup final' scenario, who knows what might happen?

Quote:

Leipziger
.....who knows what might happen?

...especially if the fire alarm kept going off through the night.


I wonder if the Sarries team enjoyed their breakfast?

It's like the title winning season when we went toe to toe with Sarries for the title, all over again! Can only but dream.☺

[youtu.be]
This is the sort of rugby I want to see us playing tonight.
Play at pace like this then I think at least a losing bonus point can come our way.
I just wonder how fit Vunipola is? I can see him running out of juice due to lack of match fitness.
Quite looking forward to it, actually.
This game no dissing Sale and Worcester, will give us an accurate measurement of where we are as a team.
Challenges don't come harder than Sarries and Exeter as far as the AP is concerned, imo. Imagine the belief generated IF we won. I'd say the boys have arrived!

Dam hot over here in Philly. Had a choice of driving from London to watch the game at KP or fly to the States. I took the easy journey and booked a late flight. Come on you Falcons. And of course "Have a nice day"

Hopefully we've flown over Justin the PA. He'd be well suited to fire up the American crowds.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 16/09/2017 20:41 by falconbear.

The stadium is empty. Why didn't they offer loads of free tickets to schools, etc etc.

I thought it was supposed to be a promotional game!

Issue is there is no interest. If people where interested they would turn up to watch. The stadium does look very empty like.

Mind you great to hear falcons in such fine voice. Can't hear the sarries lot!

Looking forward to when we are a top four team and the referee (Doyle in particular) calls our players by their first name and referees the opposition only

Yeah, constantly hearing the falcons fans!! Great stuff.

I'd like to see us really try and take the ball to them a bit more. We're defending well, but we're putting ourselves under a lot of pressure. We'll concede more next half if we don't change it a little bit ....and I'm aware we're playing a top class side in Saracens.

Well as promotional games go...its not going to be gaining any new recruits from the major US sports!

Its woeful!

Our penalty count has been very high...most of it in key kickable areas. Farrell is having a field day.

We haven't taken the game to Sarries at all! Very disappointing.

Penalty try and yellow card!!!! Are you kidding me Doyle!!!! Never in a million years!

Quote:

GeordieFalcon
Penalty try and yellow card!!!! Are you kidding me Doyle!!!! Never in a million years!

He really is a "Doyle" for that. Goneva put his two hands out to catch it, no where near a deliberate knock down. Mind you, apart from that I think he's had a good game, we haven't threatened sarries at all errrrr cause we can't keep hold of the ball.

Lads can regroup and go again next week.

Ryan Burrows on the radio reckons the yellow card and penalty try were fair. Sounds like we're being pretty outclassed.

And I still cant work out why JP SOcino has been dropped for Matavesi....

We've made too many schoolboy errors in dangerous positions. Agree with GF we haven't tested Sarries at all.

At 7-7 we looked competitive but just fallen away. And I don't think Sarries have been that good. We've basically gifted them the points.
These are the sort of games we could've done with the likes of Flood just to change things a little.

Saracens were poor today, we (Sarries) were lucky that falcons were ill disciplined otherwise that could have been a completely different scoreline!maybe the whole fiasco of playing in America caused the issues, Falcons will no doubt improve and be a threat through out the season, very strong team you have and when Flood returns to add his experience you'll be in or around the top 6 come May, also I think Goneva was unlucky, very harsh call for JP Doyle there, best of luck for the rest of the season,

Matavesi had his best game so far, tought he looked good in defence and going forward in the limited opportunities. However I do understand the calls for Socino to be reinstated at 12. I'm sure he will get his call soon.

Frustrating game to watch. Silly penalties were the death of us. We clearly weren't confident with our handling and kept kicking away, understandable in the circumstances, yet no kick chase pressure was applied. This has been an issue for a long time. Overall disappointing and we now have our third away game in a row next week at Bath (no one could suggest that was a home game).

We never looked like scoring, other than the interception try but it was always going to be difficult against that Saracens side.

Discipline wasn't good, and particularly dull from Will Welch who must have gifted 12 points.
Lineout misfired, as did Saracens' and there were handling errors from both sides.

Major plus for us was the defence which was excellent, well organised and committed.

I was against this exercise from the start (financial gain aside) and not convinced it has offered any benefit apart from the cash.

We cannot possibly be well-prepared for Bath next week after that trip. Probably won't affect Saracens too much as they could beat most teams playing at 70-80%.

That was a very strong Sarries team and we denied them a bonus point. It could have been so much worse. All credit to the lads for a fantastic defensive effort, and what a fantastic experience for players such as Hammersley, Joel & Robinson. I would struggle to imagine that we would have taken any more from this game had it been played at KP, so let's move on to Bath, hopefully with some fresh players to give a rest to those who maybe need a week off after the adventure, and see if we can nudge a bit further up the table.

Sarries had a side out that has won the last two European Champions Cup. They are a great team and had about six Lions playing last night but we gave them a tough game and our defence was superb.

JP Doyle was poor again, his folksy first name chats with the Sarries England stars is wrong headed and a misplaced imitation of the great Nigel Owens. Even though we gave some penalties away under pressure, the 12-5 penalty count against us in no way reflected the offending which was pretty much 50/50. On top of that giving a penalty try and a yellow card for Goneva's attempted two handed interception was a terrible decision.

Sarries deserved their victory and it was great to see Billy V back looking fresh and lasting 80 minutes. I don't think our American adventure has done us any harm and can't wait for our lads to get stuck into Bath.

Onward and Upward

Quote:

Cantabrian
Sarries had a side out that has won the last two European Champions Cup. They are a great team and had about six Lions playing last night but we gave them a tough game and our defence was superb.
JP Doyle was poor again, his folksy first name chats with the Sarries England stars is wrong headed and a misplaced imitation of the great Nigel Owens. Even though we gave some penalties away under pressure, the 12-5 penalty count against us in no way reflected the offending which was pretty much 50/50. On top of that giving a penalty try and a yellow card for Goneva's attempted two handed interception was a terrible decision.

Sarries deserved their victory and it was great to see Billy V back looking fresh and lasting 80 minutes. I don't think our American adventure has done us any harm and can't wait for our lads to get stuck into Bath.

Onward and Upward

Agree 100%

It was always going to be a tough game, but I really did feel Falcons held there own in that game.

I agree 100% Cantabrian - and thank you to the Sarries fan - very gracious in victory. Disappointed we offered very little in attack though despite a sterling defence

Cries of "New-Cas-Tle" were definitely dominant - , did you guys have lots of seriously dedicated fans who made the trip (who could act as cheer-leaders), or did the locals jump for you?

Shame we couldn't get more fans out, even by free ticket giving.

Your defence was rock-solid, rather glad that game was done in less than ideal circumstances for you rather than a tripwire back here in the UK.

In my rose-tinted glasses I did think it was more likely than not to be deliberate by Goneva, but I wonder whether it was just the higher team penalty count that led to JP jumping the way he did.

Speaking of JP, those of you watching on the TV (probably with a pair of binocluars), did you spot the JP-love fest the commentators were giving, that and the grass.

Cheers for the game

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Stuart Barnes is a Cock Womble