- Falcons v Bath Preview, March 2005

Falcons v Bath Preview, March 2005

By Leipziger March 24 2005
Our Falcons take on Bath on Sunday at Kingston Park in only our second match in a month and the last before our big European Cup trip to Paris. All the excitement may be centred around our trip to Paris, but we need to win our ZP games as well.

Our last home match was a month ago against Gloucester, which was drawn 27-27 thanks to a late Luke Narraway try. However, we were being hammered 6-20 at the break, and so we got away with two points in the end. Since then we have been defeated 23-39 at Harlequins in Jonny Wilkinson’s latest aborted comeback, and are now seventh in the league, whilst Bath stand fourth in pole position for a Heineken Cup spot outside the top 3. Bath however have their eyes on Sale’s third playoff spot.

Their latest result was an 18-10 victory over Worcester at the Rec two weeks ago, Chris Malone kicking all of the home side’s points as Worcester got the only score with a penalty try. The south-westerners also have a Cup Final to look forward to against Leeds at Twickenham on April 16^th, where they will attempt to follow us as Powergen Cup winners. Bath secured their place in the final with a 24-19 win against arch rivals Gloucester at Kingsholm on March 6^th, Andy Williams scoring the winning try in the last minute to take Bath into their first final in nine years.

Our opponents welcome back a number of England internationals this weekend, props Matt Stevens and Duncan Bell, lock and captain Danny Grewcock, and centre Olly Barkley. Also in their squad is England’s most capped full-back Matt Perry. For the Falcons, Jamie Noon and Stuart Grimes make their first appearances since January after playing for England and Scotland in the 6 Nations, whilst Matt Burke returns on the bench along with Mathew Tait. David Walder is back at fly half after Wilkinson’s injury, and Argentinian Galo Alvarez Quinones makes his first start.

Congratulations will be due to Micky Ward if he is used as a replacement on Sunday, as it will be his 100^th Premiership appearance.

Our previous meeting with Bath this season, at the Rec in September, was only the second game of the season but for many it was one of the best matches so far this term, as we left with an excellent 33-16 victory. Mike McCarthy and Tom May scored tries and Jonny Wilkinson hit a conversion and a penalty to give us a 0-15 lead, but Steve Borthwick’s try and a penalty from Malone kept Bath in the first half. We crossed again before the break, Michael Stephenson (at 15 on Sunday) scoring a converted try. A Wilkinson drop goal extended our lead, before Brendan Daniel scored an unconverted try for Bath. But we weren’t to be denied the victory and May’s second try, followed by a penalty apiece from Wilkinson and Malone made a final score of 16-33 with a bonus point for us.

Our team that day in the south west, when Phil Dowson was sent off and Matt Burke made his Falcons debut, was: Joe Shaw (Matt Burke 67), Tom May 2T (YC), Jamie Noon, Mark Mayerhofler, Michael Stephenson 1T, Jonny Wilkinson © 2C 1P 2DG, James Grindal (Hall Charlton 67), Ian Peel (Micky Ward 31), Andy Long (Matt Thompson 55), Marius Hurter (Ian Peel 54), Luke Gross (YC) (Craig Hamilton 60), Stuart Grimes, Mike McCarthy 1T (Semo Sititi 60), Colin Charvis, Phil Dowson (RC). Replacement not used: David Walder.

The win at Bath made us believe that we might have been looking forward to a much better season than our normal mid-table obscurity. On the league front, it hasn’t happened, though 5^th place and European qualification isn’t out of our reach if we win on Sunday.

All talk on the terraces at the moment however is about the trip to Paris. But we fans must forget that for the 80 minutes on Sunday and help the boys get a victory to keep up our Premiership challenge. Fortunately, Rob Andrew feels that the team won’t have this problem, saying “We can’t overlook this game and start worrying about next week until Bath are out of the way” (www.newcastle-falcons.co.uk).

Falcons Team for Sunday:

15 Michael Stephenson

14 Tom May

13 Jamie Noon

12 Mark Mayerhofler

11 Ollie Phillips

10 David Walder

9 Hall Charlton

1c Ian Peel

2 Andy Long

3 Galo Alvarez Quinones

4 Geoff Parling