By Mally (23/01/03)
January 23 2003

The new poster campaign for the Harlequins home match pretty much sums up the Newcastle Falcons run in. 6 points adrift at the bottom of the Zurich Premiership, can Newcastle Falcons really pull themselves out of the relegation abyss? If they do we’ll be in heaven... With only 8 Zurich Premiership matches remaining, split evenly between 4 away (Leeds Tykes, Gloucester, London Wasps, Bath) and 4 home (Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints and Saracens) fixtures, some people might think it’s just too late. I disagree.

20 more points?

Going by last season when Leeds Tykes finished bottom on 28 points, Newcastle Falcons need to pick up at least another 16 – 20 points to stand a chance of staying up. We are not aiming for mid table respectability, we’re after 11th place. There are numerous rumours about relegation and league expansion, but as things stand at the moment whichever team finishes bottom will be playing in National Division One next season.

Where will the points come from?

So those 20 points – where are they going to come from? I firmly believe that all four home games are potential wins. Not that they will be easy, but then in the Zurich Premiership this season there is no such thing as an easy win.

So should Falcons just aim to win their home matches? Newcastle are going to have to do more than that as every point matters now. We need to come away from every game, home or away with points, ideally the 4 points for a win plus a try bonus, but if that’s not going to happen then we need to pick up those lose bonus points. We can not afford to come away with nothing.

Wins over Bath, Harlequins and Saracens (at present 11th, 9th and 7th in the Premiership table) are crucial. The current 6 point gap between Newcastle Falcons and 11th placed Bath needs to shrink, not widen.

Steps taken

The Newcastle Falcons management team have taken steps to halt the downward slide by bringing in several new players to bolster the squad. While Warren Britz and Mark Andrews have yet to make their Falcons’ debuts, they have already been doing some positive talking. Hopefully their actions will speak as loud as their words.

The coaching team has also been re-shuffled with Steve Bates being moved into a more analytical role and Andrew Blades, the forwards coach, assuming more responsibility. Blades has given the Newcastle Falcons forwards confidence and under his guidance they have begun to perform well. If he has a similar effect on the team as a whole then hopefully things will look up.

Recent performances against Saracens indicate that all is not lost. Despite losing the Parker Pen Challenge Cup quarter-final tie on aggregate, there were several positives to be taken. The first leg saw the return of Jonny Wilkinson and a dominant first half performance from the Newcastle Falcons pack. The second leg was a win for Newcastle, and even more importantly a Falcons' fight back from 12-0.

Pig-headed stubborn determination

Last season Leeds Tykes were bottom of the table for the majority of the season, everyone expected them to be whitewashed like Rotherham were the previous season. Phil Davies and the Tykes team had other ideas. They took it one game at time and fought for each and every one. That approach worked and they ended up going right to the wire. If the Powers-That-Be had not intervened then the final game of the season would have dictated Tykes fate. Last season Leeds Tykes earned a lot of respect and fans, as you never left one of their matches feeling that the team had not given 110%.

It is that kind of attitude which Newcastle Falcons need now - pig-headed stubborn determination. A refusal to give up, scrap for every point, if the opposition score one try then so what? We’ll go and score two.

Okay so it might not come off. But as the clichés say we’ve nothing to lose and sometimes it’s not the winning that counts but how you play the game. I want to be proud of my team, if we end up in National Division One then fine, just as long as we go down fighting.

And if the ladies are still despondent, well here's Jamie...

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Both Sides Leave Smiling - PPCC Falcons v Saracens home leg

Thank you to Newcastle Falcons for the Photographs!

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