By Leipziger
April 30 2005

It seems like only yesterday that we defeated Worcester at a sweltering Sixways back in September – but in reality it was 21 Premiership matches and eight long months during which we have seen the highs of Heineken Cup quarter finals and the lows of being humiliated by Leicester.

And now we come to 80 minutes of league rugby of 2004/05, and, as this Falcon expected in September, Newcastle are fighting for a place in the playoffs.  Unfortunately, the Wildcard, not the Championship playoffs.  We currently stand seventh in the league going into Saturday’s game at London Irish.  A bonus point should be enough to secure our place in the Wildcard, providing none of Irish (who would have won obviously), Leeds and Northampton win with a bonus point.  A win though, and a defeat for Gloucester would move us up to 6^th and probably mean a home draw against the Shed Boys in the Wildcard semis.

 

But that is for next weekend.  First we have to win our first match for over 2½ months, a run of five consecutive defeats and one draw and no wins in our last seven games since defeating Wasps at home on February 6^th.  Our last outing was a one-point defeat at Northampton on April 15^th, when Jonny Wilkinson made his latest return from injury.  We can probably expect him to start on Saturday in order to try and get the best possible league position (apparently some guys want to take him to opposite sides of the Pacific in the summer, but I haven’t been paying much attention to that recently and hopefully he is focused on first things first too).  We will however be without Michael Stephenson, who broke his leg at Franklin’s Gardens, but hopefully Matt Burke will have recovered from a shoulder injury to lead the side with Wilkinson, Stuart Grimes and Colin Charvis.

 

On Sunday Irish played their final home match of the campaign against Bath, going down 19-21 to tries by Frikkie Welsh and Isaac Fea’unati, to one by Michael Horak for the Exiles.  Despite their position below us (Irish still need 2 points to be completely certain of avoiding the drop), they boast a useful squad, particularly a strong pack of forwards including tough-as-nails England prop Rob Hardwick, Irish international Bob Casey and captain Ryan Strudwick in the second row, and internationals Kieran Dawson and Roland Reid in the back row.  Behind the scrum, Darren Edwards and one of the Premiership’s great kickers, Barry Everitt pull the strings, and Irish also boast World Cup winner Mike Catt and England internationals Horak and Geoff Appleford.

 

On both of their previous visits north Irish have left Kingston Park with the points, 16-24 in November 2002 and 15-16 a year ago on May 2 2004, when a certain Mathew Tait scored a try with his first touch of the ball in Premiership rugby.  In total, our record against Irish at home reads a poor P15 W6 D0 L9.

 

Last November we lost our first meeting with Irish this season, 21-15 at the Madejski Stadium, but despite being without Charvis and Grimes on international duty, and leaving Stephenson, Mike McCarthy, Marius Hurter and Mark Mayerhofler on the bench, looked for a long time like we would pull off the win.

 

David Walder started the ball rolling with an early try, running from deep in his own half, but was then the villain of the piece when his kicked was charged down and Mike Catt’s try put Irish ahead, though a penalty from Burke gave us a 8-10 half time lead.  Phil Dowson then stretched our lead with our second try, but a couple of penalties and a Paul Hodgson score in injury time gave the home side the points as the Falcons threw away yet another victory there for the taking.

 

The Newcastle side that day was: Burke 1C 1P, May, Noon, Taione (Mayerhofler), Tait, Walder 1T, Charlton (Grindal), Peel ©, Long (Isaacson), Ward, Gross, Hamilton (Buist), Sititi (McCarthy), Harris, Dowson 1T.

 

So what can we expect on Saturday?  A fiercely contested match between two evenly matched teams should be a given, but as for the result that is anyone’s guess.  Until a month ago, we had lost only once at KP all season, to Leicester.  Now we have also been beaten by Bath and Worcester, and drawn with Saracens and Gloucester. 

 

As usual it will depend on how quickly we get into our stride and whether our pack can take the game to an Irish side who as always will more than mix it physically.  The formbook (Irish have won 2 games since we last tasted victory and have beaten us in five of the last six meetings) suggests an away win.  However, we are at home and know a win will not only secure a Wildcard place but might well get us a home tie against Gloucester rather than a trip to Kingsholm (should Saracens win there on Saturday), and so we shall not be lacking motivation.

 

These playoffs are our only chance of Heineken Cup rugby next season, and if we don’t get there it will be a massive step backwards.  Therefore we must aim for the best draw we can get, plus get some semblance of form going into these games, so a win on Saturday is vital.  If we get behind the team like we did in Paris then we can help the players lift their game and send Irish back to Reading empty-handed.