By Mark H
July 14 2005

Our Falcons at 10 series continues with a look back to 1996/97, the start of the golden years for Newcastle Falcons. The team had struggled results-wise in 1995/96, whilst Rob Andrew started to assemble a team for the professional era. All that was about to change.

If the 1995/96 season was one of building for Newcastle’s rugby future, then 1996/97 was the year when the bricks would have to turn into a house.  With Sir John Hall’s visions becoming more and more of the clubs running the game, getting the TV deals and in effect superseding the RFU, the first division was becoming increasingly like the only place to be.

 

And Newcastle were stuck in the second.

 

Only one goal then for Rob Andrew – promotion.  With fellow big spenders Richmond also looking for a place at the top table, a good start was imperative.  Four pre-season games without a win did not bode well, and an unconvincing 30-13 win over Waterloo in the first league match didn’t silence the doubters – winning 74-29 at Nottingham the following week started that job.

 

By now, Newcastle Gosforth was no more, with the club being rebranded as Newcastle Falcons, and the proud green of the Gosforth days being replaced by black and white shirts in keeping with the Newcastle Sporting Club ethos.  With the move in the early part of the season to completely abandon the Gosforth side of the club, leaving only the first XV and the academy as part of the Falcons, and yet another influx of players, if you didn’t like change then Kingston Park was a place to avoid.

 

Four signings over the season stood out, two in the opening weeks followed by another pair at the start of 1997.  The early season signings both came from rugby league, Alan Tait and John Bentley both moving back into the game they left in the amateur era.  Tait was chased by Andrew, but Bentley virtually sold himself to the club, leaving his contract at the Halifax Blue Sox to become part of the revolution.  It was no surprise therefore that the victories continued, Richmond being the exception with a 20-all draw, before a first defeat at Coventry (19-18 with Bentley having been sent off) coming amidst an ongoing row about international player release.

 

The row centred around players being released for internationals (nothing changes!), with the regulations being amended to count out non-English internationals when clubs were trying to get games postponed because of call-ups.  Falcons, with Tait, Gary Armstrong, Nick Popplewell and Doddie Weir falling into that category, were particularly hard hit.  With the thought that playing understrength teams could be damaging to the promotion hopes, Hall did what he thought best, and refused to sign the agreement (along with five other clubs).  This put in doubt Falcons’ very existence, with expulsion from both the Courage leagues and the RFU being threatened before the agreement was signed in February.  There could be no doubt that Hall was rattling cages at RFU headquarters, with the biggest losers, as usual, being the players, having an obligation to play for their employers, but also wanting to be the best they could for their country.

 

It has to be said too, that Falcons had partly inflicted this on themselves by both buying big names, and then using the “name” players to bring on others and help them into national teams, therefore as a result suffering the sort of problems that Leicester were to suffer during the 2003 World Cup.  One of those players developed into the England side was Tim Stimpson, who celebrated his call up for the autumn international against Italy by first not taking the (then) traditional week off before his first cap, and instead played against London Scottish – and scored a hat-trick!

 

The promotion march continued, and it was soon to be helped out by arguably the highest profile of all of the signings to that point.  Directors Douglas Hall and Freddie Shepherd had asked Rob Andrew which one player he would like, and the answer came back “Va’aiga Tuigamala”.  One of the stars of the great Wigan rugby league team was now looking to concentrate solely on the union game that had given him 39 All Black caps, and with Wigan in debt, it seemed inevitable that he would leave for nothing less than big money.  The only other realistic contenders for his signature were Wasps, where he'd spent part of the 1996/97 season on a short term contract.  Wasps allegedly made an audacious offer that would have wiped out Wigan’s debt with an interest free loan meaning that the soon-to-be champions would share him with Wigan, but Inga wanted to stay in the north for family reasons and just concentrate on union.  By early February, therefore, he was a Falcon as part of a deal rumoured to be worth over £1million in transfer fees and salary payments.  By that point, his good friend Pat Lam had already joined, having gained release from the NZRFU, and Lam scored on his debut, a 70-8 win at Rugby.  The jigsaw was almost complete.  It just had to be completed now by getting that promotion place.

 

For all the new signings, the Pilkington Cup quarter-final defeat by 18-8 to Leicester was a blow, particularly as Andrew’s influence at fly-half was nullified by Neil Back whilst his opposite number Joel Stransky kicked all the Tigers’ points.  With the side sitting fourth in the second division at that stage being no good, there was a danger (despite numerous games in hand) that Falcons would miss out completely.

 

What better boost then than to beat Nottingham 53-17 at Kingston Park on the Sunday after the last round of Five Nations matches, with five players (Weir, Armstrong, Stimpson, Tony Underwood and a recalled Rob Andrew after getting his 71^st and final cap) playing on successive days.  Moseley were then crushed 88-19, and then Richmond were downed at Kingston Park 37-17 in font of a record crowd of 5,700.  The Richmond win proved vital, because a loss in the next game at Bedford meant that although the leaders had been beaten, the second placed side hadn’t, and losing both games would almost certainly have meant the goal of promotion wasn’t achieved.

 

The Bedford match ended up with Nick Popplewell being banned for 30 days for punching Scott Murray (after one S Lander failed to punish Murray for taking out Doddie Weir in the air at a lineout), and Tony Underwood with a fractured jaw.  It seemed that Bedford were not only content to win the game, but to hamper Falcon hopes of winning further games.  Popplewell as a result would miss the start of the following season.

 

Six games to go, and there followed a magical run, with six wins, an average of over 60 points per game; all of which meant that second spot was secured.  The wins came over Coventry 49-17, Blackheath 72-10, Rotherham away 45-21 (all in the space of eight days), London Scottish 71-20, Waterloo 66-24, and finally Rotherham at home 61-13.

 

Promotion was clinched at Waterloo, despite a broken arm for Dean Ryan, and the season ended with just the one draw and two defeats in the 22 league games, 1255 points for, and 346 against, including a (still) league record win of 156-5 over Rugby which featured 22 tries and 18 Andrew conversions.  Still not enough for the title though, as Falcons trailed Richmond by one point in the final shake-up.

 

Elsewhere, Wasps won the first division, Leicester won the Pilkington Cup 9-3 against Sale, and five Falcons were selected for the Lions squad that went out and became the first to win in South Africa – Bentley, Weir, Tait, Stimpson and Underwood.  All featured in at least one Test except for Doddie Weir, who became a victim of thuggery against Mpumalanga.

 

And just to prove that common sense (or a complete lack of it) still existed in the “professional” game at that point, the English contingent finished the Lions tour, then had to go to Australia to play a test match there.  For any Falcons supporter, it was the first unbelievable act of what was to be an incredible twelve months.

 

 

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An addendum

 

I like it when we get feedback on our stories, even if it's from people who disagree totally with what I've written. Amongst others on the Drunken Wasps site, H has commented on two parts of recent stories, one of which I've corrected re Inga Tuigamala's former career at Wasps above, and the other which I'll come on to here.

In reaction to the "In the Beginning" article (the review of the 1995/96 season), I wrote:-

'Such was the recruitment drive though that in hindsight, although Andrew was building up a team that by May 1998 would be champions of England, he was also upsetting people along the way. Not necessarily the clubs - although Wasps throwing out both Andrew and Dean Ryan after the signing of Nick Popplewell and Steve Bates was the most visible show of anger.'

H's response:-

"Throwing out? I dont bloomin' think so! They defected. Indeed, Andrew was asked by the club point blank whether he intended taking anyone else from Wasps when he went, he answered 'No' and proceeded to take (if memory serves correctly) Ryan and Poppy (Steve Bates had already agreed to leave at the end of the season and go to Falcons, and Graham Childs had signed for West Hartlepool but subsequently ended up at Falcons) ~ hence why he (Rob Andrew) is occasionally referred to as 'Judas' around the club."

As with any story, there's always two sides, and it's clear that feelings are still strong about the events of ten years ago. Unless Rob Andrew himself comes out and says exactly what went on, we will never know (and it has to be said, but once again Rob's version of events will still only be one side of the story) the full events of 1995. I'll freely admit that I couldn't say exactly what went on.

Many thanks though to H and all at Wasps for taking such a keen interest (they've said that i can check anything Waspie with them), and good luck to them for the forthcoming season."