By Leipziger
September 24 2004

Andrew Mower

What were the reasons for Newcastle finding themselves rock bottom of the league come Christmas 2002? The departure of five experienced players in the preceding summer? Probably. Over-reliance on youth across the pitch? Definitely. The injuries to Jonny Wilkinson and David Walder? They didn’t help. But one cause usually forgotten is the ludicrous decision to loan probably our best back-row player, Andrew Mower to Borders in the summer.

When Mower returned and took his place in the side along with new signings Mark Mayerhofler and Mark Andrews, the Australian-Scot brought a new energy to the openside position and greatly improved our defence. The result was that we won four ultra-tight matches and managed to secure survival against Saracens with a week to spare.

Andrew joined the Falcons in the summer of 2000 after a year with London Irish, and quickly became a first choice at openside, playing in the 2001 Cup Final against Harlequins at Twickenham and making 29 starts in his debut season. Injury and the emergence in the back row of Epi Taione and Rob Devonshire restricted Mower to only 8 starts in the following season, and he was farmed out to Borders for half a year.

Mower’s excellent form brought a call-up to the Scotland, for whom he has 13 caps. However, a broken leg in the World Cup saw him miss the whole of last season for his club and some despair of ever seeing him in a Newcastle shirt again. However, should we see him back, he will be most welcome.

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Profile last updated 24/09/2004

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