By Leipziger
April 15 2013

Bristol at Kingston Park on Saturday is all that stands in the way of the Mighty Falcons making it a perfect 22 wins in the Championship regular season.

On a foul day in southern Devon, both the Falcons and Plymouth Albion played a far better game than the conditions should have allowed, if you believe some, and it was only with Adam Powell's try, our third of the afternoon, that the win was safe.

All the pre-match talk among the away fans centred on two topics – good local establishments serving curry and alcohol, and then the news that Jimmy Gopperth had pulled out of our team due to a buttock-related injury.

Waisea Luveniyali starting prompted suggestions that, whether this injury was dangerous or not, Dean Richards looked at the pitch and the numerous puddles and decided not to risk either Jimmy or Joel Hodgson.

Luvey screwed a penalty wide of the goal in the opening minutes but it was not long before the Falcons took the lead. With the black scrum already ascerting itself, Ollie Stedman peeled off the back and crashed over the line, though the ball seemed to bounce up suspiciously quickly.

Nevertheless, the try was given and Luveniyali converted it.

Although both teams tried to play attacking rugby, the wind and rain made this difficult, but credit for them for trying and for both packs for trying to scrummage properly, the low number of resets was certainly noticeable. Unfortunately, if more than two or three of all of the lineouts in the game were thrown straight, I'd be surprised.

Proper try chances were rare but Tom Catterick almost found his way over on the far left at the end of a fluent backs move, before being bundled into touch before he could pass inside to the rampaging Carlo Del Fava.

Plymouth got their half of the scoreboard ticking through a Declan Cusack penalty, but Newcastle pulled further away when an up-and-under from Luveniyali created confusion for the hosts 35 metres out and Jamie Helleur gathered to run in unopposed.

By half-time though the lead was back to just four points as Plymouth put together a spell of possession in the Falcons' 22 and after moving steadily closer to the line, Tobias Howley-Berridge nipped over with a loose ball for the try.

Paul Roberts, on as a replacement at full-back, hit the conversion.

The second half was still young when Stedman was shown a yellow card for a scrum offence, but while he was off the Falcons scored a penalty through Luveniyali and indeed did not concede for the rest of the game.

Plymouth did probe and it was by no means a simple second half as the south-westerners looked to end their home season with a famous victory. However, the Falcons defence held firm, bolstered by the introduction of Rob Vickers and Richard Mayhew.

In the end the scoreline was made more comfortable when Adam Powell broke through the centre for his second try for the Falcons and our third of the day. With a 15-point lead and just minutes remaining, the missed conversion didn't matter.

It is interesting that Plymouth are now one of only two teams to have stopped us getting a bonus point both home and away in the Championship and British & Irish Cup this season, along with Bedford. They are a strong, well-organised team and with some more quality could well end up in the right half of the league again, having beaten relegation well in 2012/13.

As for us, there are no more new destinations on the Championship roadshow, but after Bristol on Saturday things will be given a massive kick into “interesting”.

Heavy rain, big puddles but no slip-up

Discussion started by FalconsRugby.org.uk , 15/04/2013 17:04

FalconsRugby.org.uk
15/04/2013 17:04

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Rugbyears
15/04/2013 17:51

Leipziger once again thank you for providing such a pleasurable read!

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Monkey1
15/04/2013 18:54

Nice one thanks Leipy, your reports always add a bit of colour compared to mere reports of what happened on the pitch. Sounds like it was a very enjoyable encounter.

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