By Chris Chaplin
September 29 2004

After starting so well our pals from the North East came a cropper down at Kingsholm last weekend. Tigers, on the other hand, after an inauspicious start at Edgeley Park, have lately come good. So this week we shall see if Newcastle are already faltering and whether Tigers form will be maintained.
Fresh from my holiday I’m back in my garret to look at the forthcoming fixture up at Kingston Park when Tigers make the journey north to try and improve on the draw they secured in the aftermath of Dean Richards’ departure last February and which was part of the unbeaten run that only ended at Edgeley Park on the opening weekend of the new season.

Newcastle Falcons were at the top of the pile as the events of last weekend got underway having beaten new boys Worcester down at Six Ways, where the Warriors pack gave a good account of themselves but lacked any firepower to capitalise on the possession gained by their pack. Quins then visited the Falcons’ nest and gave them a bit of a scare before the Londoners accepted eventual defeat but perhaps the most noteworthy achievement was Falcons’ visit to the Recreation Ground where they overcame the misfiring pace setters of last season, John “Knuckles” Connolly’s Bath.

Now I hope that any Falcons’ supporters reading this will forgive me for saying so but it was not until last Saturday when their team visited Castle Grim that they really faced a side that is going well both in the forwards and the backs so it was a match in which they at least needed to give a good account of themselves if their early promise was to be seen as more than a passing phase.

In the event of course Falcons fell short in their endeavours with their pack failing to secure sufficient quality possession for their backs, save for a period immediately after the restart when Colin Charvis seemed to bring some commitment and urgency to proceedings.

It will not have gone unnoticed by the Falcons’ management that this was not the high tar, full strength Gloucester pack with Vickery still sidelined and South African Christo Bezuidenhout yet to arrive, therefore leaving newly signed ex Pertemps Bees Terry Sigley and academy player Nick Woods to support Olivier Azam.

Even in the second row converted flanker Buxton is still having to be pressed into service with Adam Eustace not yet having attained full fitness. So I can’t help feeling that Falcons should have given a better account of themselves in this theatre of operations than they did.

In the backs Jonny Wilkinson is seemingly back in the kicking and defensive grooves but has yet to regain his dominating attacking influence in open play, while the loss of Mark Meyerhofler is a real blow, the New Zealander, by my reckoning, one of the top half dozen inside centres in the Premiership. As a consequence such possession as the Falcons’ pack did secure was not used to the dazzling effect that would otherwise be expected.

Up at Welford Road meantime the Tigers front row is very much of the type that should carry a Government Health Warning as being dangerous to their opponents’ health!

While Harry Ellis was Man of The Match against Saints my vote was firmly for Julian White who has been terrifyingly good this season and indeed the front five simply destroyed their opposition with Saints in disarray all afternoon as had been those of London Irish and Leeds before them. That fine Lion Tom Smith leaving early a beaten man.

The young Tigers half-back combination prospered in these benign circumstances and with Gibson and Smith at last joined in battle and a consistency of selection also breaking out in the back three Tigers had a fine time of it.

In their convincing victories over London Irish and Leeds the achievements of those by Falcons over Worcester, Quins and Bath were echoed however Saints had been the real deal and so there were parallels to be drawn, for as Falcons had to face a real test against Gloucester so did Tigers against Saints having failed when they met Sale a few weeks earlier. Saints, it should be remembered, had beaten them at Welford Road in both the 2002/3 and 2003/4 seasons so perhaps were felt to have a bit of a hex over the Tigers.

Here though the similarities came to and end with the two sides having very different outcomes to their examinations.

If Tigers can secure a win at Kingston Park on Saturday then I think they can say that they are on their way to a much improved season whereas if Falcons fail to win they will have very real doubts as to what this term holds in store for them.

The key to the outcome will as ever be how the respective packs go in general and the tight fives in particular.

Against Gloucester Falcons started with Peel, Thompson and Hurter and there’s no doubt that Marius Hurter certainly has plenty of experience his being a thirteen time Springbok and I would expect that Falcons most experienced hooker, the ex England, Bath and Munster player Andy Long, would be the best bet to start against Tigers with Jeremy Isaacson in support. Isaacson, although born in the northeast and a product of the Falcons Academy, has played in Australia and has earned representative honours for England at all but the full cap level.

A combination of Isaacson, Long and Hurter looks the best starting line-up that Falcons can muster and indeed these three, when they joined the fray against the Cherry and Whites after half time, looked far more impressive than did the starting trio.

However I cannot see them matching the fearsome Tigers front row and believe that Falcons will struggle in this department.

At lock young Scot Craig Hamilton replaced close season signing from Rotherham, the much capped American Eagle, Luke Gross, shortly before a halt was called at Kingsholm.

I must confess to being perplexed by Gross as when he plays for his country he doesn’t seem to be the target for his thrower or indeed to jump very often, in which, given his height of 6’9”, he has more than a head start on many of his opponents.

Given the experience that Tigers will have on display at lock if Ben Kay continues his return to form with another start I can only assume that if Stuart Grimes doesn’t start he must be injured, as with the departure of Mark Andrews and Garath Archer the 63 time capped Scot, who has already scored 12 tries from 79 premiership appearances, is the standout lock up at Kingston Park.

Although young Hamilton has only one international cap to his name so far I rather like what I’ve seen of him and an all Scottish second row would be the way to go if I were Rob Andrew, which thankfully I’m not as it may be that he feels the vastly experienced Gross is a shoo in.

If Grimes starts then I think the lineout will be keenly contested although it’s hard not to prefer the Tigers duo in the tight.

It is in the back-row that Newcastle suffered their most grievous loss in the close season with the superb Hugh Vyvyan setting off to Saracens, Warren Britz going home to South Africa and the promising Jon Dunbar mysteriously going down the road to Leeds.

Rob Andrew did act to fill the void and made some signings, the most notable I suppose being that of Colin Charvis who just a year ago was filling out his UB40 prior to finding a bolthole at Tarbes. Mike McCarthy has joined from Connacht having earlier had a spell at Wasps and Semo Sititi has travelled south from Borders to vie with Phil Dowson for the #8 shirt.

With the superb Andrew Mower still presumably sidelined with injury and spending much time with Falcons’ lawyers, Falcons other specialist open-side is young Ed Williamson and hence against Gloucester Sititi and Dowson both played in the back row with the 36 time capped Samoan, who has scored 9 international tries, probably not yet used to his best advantage.

I would expect that the trio that ended the Gloucester match to be felt that most appropriate to start on Saturday.

With Neil Back, Will Johnson, Henry Tuilagi and hopefully a recovered Martin Corry joining with the improving Brett Deacon coach John Wells has good options here even without the emerging talent of Will Skinner and a chomping at the bit Lewis Moody, nevertheless the Tigers’ trio will be acutely aware that if Charvis is in the mood there are few better at taking the ball up and I rather hope to see Back and Corry on the flanks to combat that particular threat.

In the set pieces honours will probably be fairly even, although if Corry plays Tigers might gain a slight advantage however I expect the Tigers’ loose forwards to score around the breakdown and tackle areas if the teams’ respective performances against Gloucester and Saints are any kind of benchmark.

Overall therefore I would favour the Tigers pack to dominate, especially in the tight five.

Behind the pack Harry Ellis, after a torrid time at Edgeley Park, has enhanced his credentials as heir apparent to the England #9 shirt latterly occupied by the newly formed media personality that is Matt Dawson.

Ellis will match up against either erstwhile Tigers colleague James Grindal or Hall-Charlton with the latter, seen as another candidate for the England scrum half job, capable of showing some touches of real class most likely to start I’d have thought but he will need to be alert to the threat presented by Ellis especially as I expect the Tigers’ tyro to be blessed with better quality and quantity of ball than will be his opposite number.

Two promising young scrum halves here but by dint of the performance I expect from the Tigers’ pack Harry should have an advantage.

At fly-half another young Tiger, Ross Broadfoot, will have an opportunity to witness close up the talents of Jonny Wilkinson. Although Wilko’s boot is pretty much back in full effect and his defensive work is seemingly close to normal he has not seemed as influential and confident yet in attack and I for one hope that he decides that his return to his classical form needs to be brought on gently and not rushed for this weekend’s game!

Broadfoot made a very solid start against Saints, showing some nice open field play he got his backs into play with speed and accuracy and as the game wore on so did his confidence grow with the boot. Of course against Jonny Wilkinson at the height of his powers even a talented player such as young Ross would struggle but I don’t think that is yet the case nevertheless he will still be at all ends up to control the maestro!

The loss of former All Black Mark Meyerhofler to a broken leg has rather unhinged the Newcastle pack from their dynamic backs and although Joe Shaw stood in against Gloucester I think that he would find Daryl Gibson a very different prospect to the more effete skills of Henry Paul.

However as Shaw too hobbled off from the field of pain at Kingsholm and although it has already been tried with limited success, I do wonder whether bringing the talented David Walder in at fly-half and moving Wilkinson to inside centre would not be a better option to pursue.

Falcons also have Mark Wilkinson, sibling of the fabled Jonny, waiting in the wings but he is currently also injured, so it will be interesting to see what option Rob Andrew goes for although it does seem that Wilko/Walder combination would be the least disruptive and Jonny has played at inside centre.

Jamie Noon could also move in to #12 with May in at #13 and the talented young Tait on the wing but for me Noon looks a more complete #13, indeed as complete as the fast returning to form Ollie Smith. I rather hope that Noon and Smith will get to face each other as both are strong and quick although of the two Noon is the one more prone to gaffs and I expect Smith to marshal him tightly and try to prevent him getting the dangerous May or Stephenson into play.

Stephenson is one of the most dangerous open field runners in the premiership, as he amply demonstrated when weaving his way through the Gloucester side to notch up his 28th premiership try last Saturday. Incidentally Tom May has managed 25 premiership tries so the danger that the Newcastle wingers pose should not be underestimated, and that’s before the hugely talented Tait gets into play!

Tigers seem to have a settled pairing on the flanks with Austin Healey back to pretty much his truculent best aided and abetted by the powerful Seru Rabeni, who is already a firm favourite with the Tigers faithful, a try in each of the last three matches already making him an emerging cult figure.

What is of some concern here though is that Rabeni, like so many South Sea Islanders, favours the “excrement or bust” style of tackle which does not necessarily stop the opponent and if he does not make secure in this area then I fear Stephenson and May will break out.

At the back the star signing of the close season to my mind, Matt Burke. Now 31, capped 81 times for the Wallabies scoring 29 tries and almost 900 points for his country he is a talent to savour. Just two starts thus far for his new employers and probably feeling his way in the different atmosphere that the Premiership provides he is nevertheless an enormous danger and any speculative or careless kicking in front of him will be severely punished and he will use every opportunity to come into the line to augment the first strike runners especially, I suspect, in the 10/12 channel.

Burke and Wilko in the same team! Wow!

In support, if Shaw is dragooned into the centre or injured, is young Toby Flood who I hear is seen as real prospect up Tyneside way and with Burke as his mentor the youngster has a good opportunity to shine when his chances come along.

Of course Tigers also have a full back who some think is just a bit of a talent, the mercurial Geordan Murphy, who not only showed his mesmerising talents against Saints but also his determination when Corne Krige tried to remove the Irishman’s head.

I do not somehow think that Falcons will employ a strategy of kicking to Mr Murphy and giving him a run but if they did – well that would be fun!

All very interesting then and in spite of the exceptionally dangerous Falcons’ back division albeit now disrupted by injury in the centre I have a sneaky feeling that the more complete package Tigers have with their fearsome pack should prevail over the Falcons which leads me to cautiously predict a Tigers win but I’m not expecting another five points!

There are two caveats however: Firstly do not give away penalties other than inside the Falcons 22 or Mr Wilkinson will kick Tigers to death and second keep the ball in hand and don’t kick the ball to Falcons’ back three.

Then perhaps, just perhaps, another Tigers’ victory

Finally my thanks to the jet-setting Rich Walker for his epic preview of the Saints game. He’ll be back early in the New Year for the home fixture against Biarritz so get the prescription for your reading glasses renewed to enhance your New Year reading pleasure!