By Whaley Shark
September 4 2010

On a warm summer evening, with the sun going down over the corner of the Cheadle End, Canada Geese flying in to land on the reservoirs, lush grass on the pitch, Newcastle Falcons are in town for the first ever Aviva Premiership game. Oh, and by the way, Sale have been turned upside down over the summer. Though filled with optimism, like many on here, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

Well, we started as you’d hope we might, putting Falcons under pressure from the kickoff and winning a penalty right in front of their posts to take a short-lived lead. Falcons equalised almost immediately following some ill-discipline from the restart. Both sides then made declarations of intent, with Paul Williams running a high kick back at Falcons but after a few phases we lost possession. It was then Falcons’ turn, running neatly through the phases and retaining possession, but lacking any real penetration, and finally resorting to a drop goal attempt which drifted wide. Tom Brady ran it back to half way, quick hands from Dave Seymour kept the move alive and Falcons conceded another penalty. We ran that, were held on the Falcons ten metre line, but won a penalty which Nick McLeod slotted. Some great spoiling play by Seymour led to another penalty a few minutes later, and we started to edge ahead.

Falcons had a lucky break a few minutes later- a penalty kick came off the post, we were slow to react and ended up conceding a 5 metre scrum from which blind side Brent Wilson crossed under our posts. With the conversion, we were suddenly 9-10 down. For the next few minutes, both sides swapped punches but then, from a lineout on the Falcons’ 10 metre line, we ran the ball left, Tuilagi offloaded in the tackle and the forwards drove on for Wihongi to cross.

And then there was a move worthy of the Sale of old. Newcastle’s defence, under pressure, fumbled a high kick (nowt wrong with ‘em if used sparingly and followed up well), we regained possession and Tom Brady, flying down the right, gathered an inch-perfect cross kick from Nick McLeod to score in the corner. McLeod also hit the difficult conversion from the touchline. An exchange of penalties took the half time score to 26-13.

The first twenty minutes of the second half was a similar story. Newcastle lacked penetration, while we were able to set up two kickable penalties and a Dwayne Peel drop goal, extending our lead to 35-13 and letting us think we might just win comfortably. Falcons disagreed, though, and put our defence under severe pressure with a fine chip over the defence, which Paul Williams just got away to touch. Although Falcons made a mess of the lineout, we were penalised at the resulting scrum, then lost another ten metres (backchat?), and Falcons kicked for the corner. Chris Leck came on for Dwayne Peel and, in his efforts to become a pub quiz question, was promptly yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle. A bit harsh in my view, but I can see how it came about. Falcons kept battering at our defence and, while we never quite relieved the pressure, we held out bravely until, eventually, our defence became too stretched and Brent Wilson crossed for his second try of the match.

We kept going until the end, but, perhaps tiring, started to make errors, with Nick McLeod kicking a restart out and Paul Williams kicking direct to touch. But there were good things as well- a cross kick to Ben Cohen, who fed Tom Brady, took us almost to the Falcons line, but we couldn’t get over. Falcons tried to run out of their 22 but solid defence bottled them up and finally they made a mistake and that was it. Game one of the Brewer era had finished with a rather stylish win.

So how to sum up? Both sides tried to play a running game, but we had a much more aggressive defence which blunted the Falcons attack and forced them to run laterally. We were also more committed at the breakdown, and throughout, played the game at pace. We also seemed to hit gaps better, giving more half breaks, and we supported really well, often with a man on each shoulder. That close support play meant we were much more effective at grabbing loose ball too. Great to see the team playing with smiles on their faces as well. Our set pieces clearly need some work, but they’ll improve with time. The questions in my mind are how this style will work in the depths of winter, and whether it’ll work against stronger opponents that Newcastle, but maybe Mike Brewer has a few more ideas we have yet to see? Only time will tell, but it’ll be fun finding out.

Oh, and finally, my man of the match- Dave Seymour, whose bustling, all-action style seems to be the Brewer approach personified. Honourable mentions also to all the other players, who put heart and soul into the game.