While it might be that a rather one-sided game could have affected our interest it was nothing like a Union game and we were more than ready to leave before the final whistle. (If we could do to Quins RU what St Helens did to Quins RL we would be very happy. The Quins fans were chanting ‘We only need 50 points’ with 3 or 4 minutes to go!)  I’m sure the initiated could explain to me the tactics involved but it seemed to be pass, tackle repeated with a kick after every 5 tackles and not a lot else apart from breaking through to score on quite a few occasions.

Anyway, on to the interesting game…  The team had quite a few changes from the one which made history last weekend but nonetheless looked a good team.  We were in the covered stand with a good view of the countdown clock, so no repeat of the panic of not knowing how long left which we had on our family’s last visit to Newcastle. (ECC semi-final two years ago. Now of course we are in the Heineken semi-final, as we kept reminding ourselves throughout the game!) We won our first victory before kick off as we had got our London Irish flags where some Falcons supporters usually put their flag and they took theirs down because ours was in the way. It was hard to see much of our warm up from the other end of the ground but Mr Wilkinson was working hard at his kicking just in front of us, much to the delight of some in our group. He even went up in SamR43 and DanR43’s estimation as the game went on!

Mr Wilkinson kicked off and after some kicking to and fro, we got a scrum on the half way line. There was some good passing and we managed to get the ball back after losing it but eventually it rolled out. We soon got a penalty though as they were penalised for holding on. The Falcons 4 (Andy Perry) and Bob had a little personal debate about something and Peter Hewat slotted the penalty. (0-3 after 6 minutes). After the restart, referee Rose had a word with the captains. I asked SamR43 (my technical advisor) why he was doing this and Sam’s reply was ‘It’s always a pleasure to talk to Bob.’ Tait cleared their line and Tagi uncharacteristically didn’t hold on to the ball – it was cold and made holding a pen quite hard so I sympathised. We won the ball back fairly quickly and cleared it, with Falcons taking a quick throw in. Tagi made a good break but was just too quick for the others and was penalised for holding on. After conceding another penalty (not rolling away) which they kicked to touch, we got the put in to the scrum after their line-out.  There was another phase of good passing by us but we ended up dropping the ball. Their clearance led to a line out and then penalty which we kicked to the corner (about 45m out). We tried a cross field kick but Tait covered it well and made a break. We conceded a penalty on half way for coming in at the side and Mr Wilkinson went for the posts but his shot fell short.  The next penalty was to us and Peter’s kick just missed touch. They cleared for our lineout, which was followed by some good passing which led to Dec’s second try in two games, with the conversion from close to the touchline going wide. (0-8 after 25 minutes).  In the run up to half time, Shane chipped ahead but the ball went a little too far. We later both conceded a penalty and were awarded a penalty (which Peter couldn’t quite get between the posts). The half ended with a missed kick for touch and then an eventual pass to the crowd leading to the whistle.

As the game restarted, Falcons knocked on from our kick off and we nearly got to the try line but the final pass didn’t quite go to hand. Peter was down for a long time but did get up eventually – we needed a trumpet rendition of Waltzing Matilda really. Some good work by us led to yet another try by Dec – it was a good job their scrum half didn’t copy Dodge’s stunning cover tackle of last week as it looked very close (well as close as it can look from over 100m away). Peter couldn’t make the touchline conversion but the score was 0-13 three minutes into the second half.  We conceded a couple of other penalties – one they went for touch on and the second Mr Wilkinson slotted to make the score 3-13 after 7 minutes. Falcons also had brought on Carl Hayman to the delight of their crowd.  We conceded another penalty which Mr Wilkinson nearly kicked to touch! The referee had another word with Bob – SamR43 must have been right and he was obviously enjoying the chance to chat to Bob. As play continued we had a good scrum and chip ahead which they cleared and at this point Dan Murphy and Paice were brought on for Tonga and Danie (13 minutes into second half). They kicked well into our half and for the first time the pressure was on. We gave away a penalty but Mr Wilkinson missed (and continued to become more of a hero in Sam and Dan’s minds). They continued to apply some pressure but then knocked on. Steffon came on for Phil after 19 minutes and we got the ball up the right end of the pitch again. We too were given a penalty and went for touch but somehow didn’t win the line out, although got one on the halfway line after their clearance. Bob caught their 22 drop out after Dodge’s kick ahead had gone a little too far. The referee stopped the game for an infringement – we thought we saw Paice go up to him but were right in thinking he was the Angel of the South and couldn’t have transgressed as we got the put in to the scrum! We had a good period of play but eventually a chip ahead went out. After 24 minutes Mr Wilkinson was taken off – he had been down for some time a little while earlier.  We were putting on the pressure again but lost the ball and they made a break but threw the ball out. The ball changed hands a few more times but the pressure continued to be by us. At 32 minutes, Peter and Richard went off to be replaced by Juan and Tomas (so we still only had one ‘foreign’ player on the pitch), with Topsy going to fullback, and Tonga came back on to replace Faan. Falcons had the ball but one of them kicked it out on the full and kicked the marker flag on the 22 out as well which Topsy kindly picked up for him. Dodge was replaced by Warren Fury after 35 minutes. In the next period of play we conceded a penalty for not rolling away and Mapusua was shown a yellow card.  Their lineout from their kick for touch was not straight but nevertheless they managed to score a try from the resultant play. They attempted a drop kick conversion to save time which didn’t go over but with less than a minute to go the score was 8-13. A nervy few moments followed but we won the ball back and Eoghan kicked it out to give us the victory. The team came right over to thank the travelling support and we could make the long journey home with only our third away win in the Premiership this season. 

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