By Leipziger
June 20 2005

A review of the Falcon's first league match, part of our Falcons at 10 series. Falcons v Waterloo, September 1996. The club became the entity it is today in 1995, this is a review of the first game under the new name of Newcastle falcons.

In September 2005 Newcastle RFC celebrates its tenth anniversary since the takeover of Newcastle Gosforth by Chicago-style mogul Sir John Hall, and Rob Andrew will have spent ten years as the club’s Director of Rugby.  In honour of this, over the next few months I will be looking back at the club’s most important matches in those times.

 

However, the club did not take the Falcons nickname until a year later, and the Falcons’ first league match was at Kingston Park on September 7^th 1996, and the opposition Waterloo for a Division 2 in the last season of the Courage League.  The game also happened to be the first match this fan attended at Kingston Park, but it was a pretty spontaneous thing as I saw the fixtures on the Thursday on Ceefax and then asked Papa Leipy to take me to the game, and for the next two months we went every other Saturday before he finally got to see the movie Independence Day!

 

Newcastle had assembled a squad with strength the second tier had never before seen (nor probably ever will again), and the critics would accept nothing less than his side romping into the top division, despite the stiff competition Richmond would produce for the title.  In the programme Rob Andrew asked for the supporters to make themselves heard, because “we are all in it together to bring success to the North East”.

 

The two sides lined up as follows:

Newcastle: T Stimpson, R Wilkinson, A Blyth, G Childs, T Underwood, R Andrew, G Armstrong, N Popplewell, R Nesdale, G Graham, R Metcalfe, D Weir, P Walton, R Arnold, D Ryan ©.

 

Waterloo: D Thompson, J Green, M Coast, N Hill, G Monaghan, A Handley ©, S Wright, K Fenton, P Hackett, M Beckett, P White, B Kay, D Blyth, P Buckton, S Bibby.  (Yes, that is the same B Kay who would help England win the World Cup!)

 

Four Falcons were making their debuts: Stimpson, Blyth, Nesdale and Graham, while former club captain Ross Wilkinson played his final match at Kingston Park before the signing of John Bentley.

 

The referee from Manchester was a chap by the name of Graham Hughes, who was castigated by Andrew in the Journal after the match (nothing new there then).

 

In front of a crowd of 1,479 (this being the time when KP had the clubhouse stand but no other seats!), a new era began.

 

The Falcons got the campaign off to a flying start with a 30-13 win over the Scousers.  Only Leicester (in the Pilkington Cup) would concede less points at Kingston Park all season, but the boys had got the first vital two points and as everyone knows, the first rule of league rugby is “don’t lose your first game”.

 

Newcastle’s points came from tries by Wilkinson, Popplewell, Armstrong and Andrew, with the latter converting two and adding two penalties.  Anthony Handley kicked two penalties for the visitors and converted David Blyth’s try.

 

The club marched into the Premiership eight months later, losing only two matches all season, and a legend was born.  A year later, much greater glory followed.