By Mark H
July 26 2005

Lost. Lost. Lost. Lost. Drew. Drew. Lost. Lost. Lost. Most supporters around the country dreaded their team getting off to a bad start in the World Cup year, but Falcons, champions just eighteen months before, looked to be on a fast track back to a lower level just after Christmas 1999.

It was decided that play would continue throughout the World Cup in 1999, with two points being awarded for a win during the tournament, and three afterwards.  Just for a change, getting off to a good start wasn't a necessity (the reigning champions Leicester lost 46-24 at Northampton on the first day, for example), but getting off to a bad one was also not needed if you were going to push for the five spots guaranteed for Heineken Cup qualification through the league.

The main summer signing was Scotland lock Stuart Grimes from Glasgow, but with the club's policy now being one of bringing players through the ranks, the likes of Dave Walder, Jamie Noon, Michael Stephenson, Micky Ward and Hall Charlton - all coming through the club's academy system - would all be vital to the Falcons fortunes.  The pre-season game against Manchester was won 24-20, but it was an indication of the struggles to come.  Even though a number of internationals had left the club during the previous two seasons, the World Cup still claimed Inga Tuigamala, Ross Nesdale, Jonny Wilkinson, Doddie Weir, Peter Walton, Gary Armstrong, George Graham and Grimes.

Weir was allowed to get some game time by the Scottish management in the first league game against Gloucester, but he couldn't do anything to prevent a 31-16 Kingsholm defeat.  The youngsters needed old heads to guide them through difficult games, but before the first home game against Bristol, the club received a hammer blow with both Ross Beattie (a surprise exclusion from the Scotland squad) and Rob Andrew aggravating old shoulder injuries.  Beattie would be out for months; in Andrew's case he retired immediately, with the prognosis from the specialist being particularly bad.  Andrew had been considering cutting back on his games after Wilkinson's return anyway, but his hand had been forced before he was ready.  There would be some long matchdays ahead.

For all of the controversy surrounding the points system, it didn't affect Falcons at all.  The 37-32 home loss to Bristol was followed by two hammerings, 56-8 at the Stoop to London Irish, then 55-6 to Saracens at Vicarage Road a fortnight later.  The first point came at Wasps in match number five with a 19-all draw, the first match that saw the return of some of the World Cup players after the British sides decided to exit on the same weekend.  Less than a week later Jamie Noon scored his first try for the club in a 12-12 Friday night draw against Leicester, and it looked like a corner had been turned.

Wrong.  Tony Underwood's body finally cried "enough", and the popular winger was forced to retire, whilst Gary Armstrong was found to have broken a collarbone in that draw at Wasps.  With both reserve scrum halves injured, Andrew brought in Kiwi Harley Crane on a short term loan, as well as signing South African centre Paul Baird on trial.  The growing injury list didn't help in the last game before the European programme started, with Falcons being thrashed at Bath 45-12.  After seven league games, the club were one place off the bottom, with only the hapless Bedford, fighting for any sort of future during their financial crisis, below them.

It was almost as if the break from the league did Falcons good.  The first pool match was won, 20-19 in Narbonne, and this was followed up by a 55-7 win over Aurillac at home.  One league game split rounds three and four, a 16-15 home loss to Harlequins that kept the club in the mire, but they then contrasted that form completely by smashing Dunvant 45-26 away and 51-10 at home.  With the French sides winning one each of the games between them, it meant that Falcons would only need a point from either of the last two pool games in the new year to make the quarter finals.

Boxing Day saw more heartbreak, as Falcons capitulated 37-5 to a Northampton side heading for the top of the table.  Doddie Weir dislocated his shoulder in the defeat, which was played in front of a capacity crowd of 6,700 at Franklin's Gardens.  How the game has moved on in just over five years - in this coming season, that will be less than half the capacity of the ground when the two sides meet in September.  Finally, three days later, the league win came, 12-6 over Sale at Kingston Park, in the tenth game of the season.  Typically, another injury was suffered, with Armstrong's comeback lasting just fifteen minutes.

The first match of the new year brought a 41-8 Tetley's Cup win over Moseley, and (you've guessed it) yet another injury, Ross Nesdale being ruled out for the rest of the season with a neck problem.  The injury list was now becoming a sick joke, and it was to Andrew's credit that he managed to pool his resources over the following two weekends to win the European pool, a 19-11 win over Narbonne following a disappointing 17-10 defeat in Aurillac.  The Aurillac defeat would prove costly, as it meant that Falcons came out as fifth seeds on try count (a win would have meant a third seeding and a home draw against Bristol), and consequently would have a trip to Pau in mid-April for the quarter-finals.

The second trip of the season to the Stoop brought a win over Quins, and had the following Tuesday night gone slightly better than losing 20-16 at home to Bath, Falcons would have been clear of the relegation play-off place.  As it was, Bedford were only two wins behind, and the teams still had to meet twice in the last nine games of the season.  Reinforcements were needed, and Andrew signed Mike Howe from London Irish to replace Nesdale, and Quins prop Alan Yates came in to act as cover.  The biggest signing though was 'Kilted Kiwi' John Leslie, joining from Sanix Fujiyama on a three year contract.  Of course, given how the season was going, Leslie's first act as a Falcon was to get injured!

 

Added to the poor league form, there was to be no repeat of the run to Twickenham, as Falcons lost the final rematch at Loftus Road 36-30.  The only things left to play for now were the unlikely European challenge, and avoiding relegation.  Bedford at home on 27^th February was looming large, and although the Blues were yet to win a league game, Falcons had only won two out of thirteen matches themselves.  Leslie made his debut, but it was Jonny Wilkinson who delved into his locker to score all of the Falcons points in a narrow – too narrow – 23-20 win.  The pressure had lifted somewhat...only for yet another capitulation.  The 34-8 home defeat to Wasps caused Andrew to tell his players to “go and apologise to Dave Thompson and thank him if he pays their wages this week”  As if to sum up the inconsistency, Wilkinson then kicked a 15-6 victory over Sarries, only for Bedford to be handed a first win of the season at Goldington Road.

 

Andrew now had a dilemma.  As unlikely as it seemed, Bedford’s win meant that they could still catch Falcons and drag them into the mire.  With the London Irish home game being played just three days after the Pau quarter-final, and with it being confirmed that there would be no spot in the Heineken Cup for the tournament winners, there was a choice to be made:–

 

sacrifice the European challenge by fielding a weakened side, to concentrate all the effort on beating Irish and guaranteeing survival, but with the risk of losing both

 

or

 

field the best available side in Pau, and play a tired (and potentially demoralised) side against Irish, in the hope of getting two results, but with the risk of losing both.

 

What would you do?  Andrew decided to rest players in France, saw the almost inevitable 36-20 defeat, but fielded a fit side on the Tuesday night and saw the required 28-23 win that meant another season in the Premiership.  In hindsight, you have to suppose that Andrew was right, but you also have to ask if the same decision would have been made had Falcons been at home to Pau, or if the defeat in Aurillac had been reversed and Bristol had been the opponents.  As it turned out, sixth seeds Bristol went to Biarritz and won their quarter-final 32-29, whilst Pau went on to beat Castres in the final.

 

The end of the season now could not come quickly enough.  A 30-11 loss as Bristol saw the end of Stuart Grimes’ season with a back injury, and although Gloucester were beaten 36-28 at Kingston Park (Wilkinson 26 points), the last two home games of the season saw a 45-17 defeat at eleventh placed Sale, and then a 32-23 loss at home to Northampton, who clinched fifth place and a Heineken spot with the win.

 

Still the injuries continued, with John Leslie having to have an operation to clean his cartilage out, which caused him to miss the Scotland tour to New Zealand.  Andrew did end the season by extending Marius Hurter’s contract for three years, and signing Liam Botham from Cardiff.  All in all though, the final position of ninth was not good enough for a club which had enjoyed almost unbroken success for the previous three seasons.

 

Leicester won the title, with Bath, Gloucester, Saracens, Wasps and Northampton also getting into the Heineken Cup, although Saints went one better by actually winning the thing, their first trophy in their 120 year history, with a 9-8 win over Munster at Twickenham.  The Premiership Player of the Year was Saints captain Pat Lam, a reminder to Falcons supporters of just what they were missing. 

 

Bedford lost their Premiership place after the two legged play-off against Rotherham, losing 20-0 at Clifton Lane and only managing to win 14-0 at Goldington Road.  It was a case of justice being done for Rotherham, who had lost out to Bedford a year earlier on try countback over the two legs.

 

Every so often you have to write a season off as a bad one.  This, hopefully, was the bad one…