By Darragh girl (snr)
February 14 2008

Back in May 2003 my husband, myself and our 2 daughters (the elder being the original Darraghgirl) spent the May bank holiday weekend in Newcastle. For my husband the bribe was a trip to the Open Air Museum at Beamish, for my younger daughter it was the Metrocentre but for DG and me it was a visit to Kingston Park to see Sarries take on the Falcons and JBW (for younger daughter's benefit).  

The weekend moved to yet a higher plain when on Saturday afternoon we returned from Beamish to the Gosforth Park Marriott only for DG to start screaming "they're here". And indeed through the Geordie dusk rose the familiar shape of the South Mimms Coach all decked out in black and red.

 

We headed for the hotel pool only to find it populated by a lot of gorgeous guys in their swimming trunks. This was almost too much for DG (even though there was no sign of the man himself) and even her sister was impressed especially when she shared the Jacuzzi with Tim Horan (who's he? she asked me later). DG glimpsed her hero in the gym but being under 16 was not allowed in, much to her disgust. Wearing her Go Darragh shirt she & her sister spent the rest of the weekend in the hotel lifts where they were almost guaranteed to meet one of their heroes. Alas Darragh kept himself out of sight (doubtless being subject to endless ribbing from his team mates)  and that night they slept next to Ben Russell (well there was a hotel room wall in between but so what). Even my husband enjoyed himself with a long chat in the bar to Tony Roques dad. (Apparently the team didn't usually stay in anything as "good" as  the Marriott but being the last away game of the season they were having a treat.) Darragh never appeared but he redeemed himself the week after by giving her a kiss at the end of the Sale game.

 

The match as I remember was a good one. Although Newcastle won, Sarries got a bonus point which almost assured us of Premiership safety. And the Go Darragh banner appeared in the local press (no idea what they made of it - they asked me what it meant! but there you go).

 

Kingston Park is a strange place. It's a cross between a concrete monstrosity and the club house at Old Albanians. Both ends are open to allow the strange Northern breezes that only St Jonny can handle. They have a strange black bird that is not a patch on our Sarrie and irritating people who run back and forwards with flags across the try line when the Falcons score. No Starlights thank God (at least there weren't then). The beer, according to hubby, was drinkable.

 

And so to Sunday. Of the Sarries team that played back in 2003 sadly Darragh has gone and only Haughton, Sorrell, Ches, Hill & Skirvs remain. But Sarries are at least safe from relegation this season (well at least I hope we are).

 

Sarries need to win this one, not least to take revenge for the defeat at VR just after Christmas (in front of that fantastic crowd). Newcastle will have their England stars back (so would we, had we lost any....but that's another thread). They are a different team when Jonny plays - I remember them playing at VR a couple of years back when he was on the bench. We were cruising it at half time, Jonny came on and in the end we just hung on by a couple of points. Haven't we heard this sort of story somewhere before? Hopefully we'll play our strongest team and Glenda will have his radar better tuned than last week (and let's hope he's playing).

 

The Newcastle backs are dangerous. Why Tait hasn't been in the England team to link up with Jonny, Flood & Noon no one but Ashton knows. I saw Flood play at the 7's a couple of years ago. He still reminds me a bit of Peter Crouch. A Newcastle supporter sitting nearby said "he'll be a good player when he learns to tackle". He might not have graduated yet but he's in his Final Year.  Their forwards have traditionally been their weaker point although Carl Hayman has instilled some Northern grit into their pack as we saw at VR last December. Not to be under-estimated then (hope someone up there is listening).

 

At the end of the day I suppose it depends which team turns up - the one that beat Bath & Biarritz or the one that crumpled to Bristol & Newcastle. Hopefully for the supporters it won' be the one that bored it's way past Worcester last weekend - although, saying that, Newcastle's recent game against the Warriors was equally dire by all accounts so maybe there's a common factor there? Mr Rose is in charge (yes I still remember the day he gave us a penalty try at Kingsholm). Time for the Camel to walk over the Falcon's nest, methinks.