By Ridley Hall
May 20 2002

Festivities at the Falcons end of season shindig on Wednesday may be a little affected by the disappointing end to the season. A 60 point hiding at, of all places, Gloucester combined with Bristol beating Leicester II's have left a cloud over the building site that is Kingston Park.

Fledglings to the Slaughter!

Fortunately, the beating will soon disappear from memory but we could have to live with non-qualification for the Heineken Cup for a full year.

What we need is for Saints to win at Bristol in the semi and we should be there.

The bit of good news is that Jonny Wilkinson saved his injury for the last game of the season. He now has all summer to recover and, as it is ankle ligaments, it should also mean he'll have to have a proper rest from his daily grind of practice kicking. That won't do him any harm.

Perhaps the other blessing in disguise is that Saturday's drubbing should persuade Thumper and Rob that they really cannot hope to go into next season relying on homegrown youngsters. We need some season heavyweights to help to take the pressure of them.