After a drive up through the fog, the OxonRob charabanc, occupied by Rob, NoExpert and myself rolled into the Kingston Park car park around 11.30 am. It looked to be a grey, miserable day and then there was the weather!

We had spotted a sign for Diggerland; one for Beamish and my vote for the third Irish-related sign went to Teddington Close just up the road from KP. Lots of Irish-type omens! Hey, it’s Christmas and we needed all the help we could muster.

Newcastle kicked off into the space normally occupied by Michael Horak or O’ Sheasby, but neither was there to take and we witnessed the first of the Falcons plan A game plan take shape. This plan is like the porridge, oats so simple, give it to the big guy, in this case, Taione and he will run it through. We had listened to the Newcastle supporters bemoaning the fact that Taione knocks on all the time, prior to the start. Well, if you chuck it to him all the time, he is bound to. Some of the ball he received was of the hospital variety. He did, however, for much of the game, carry Newcastle single-handedly.

Mike Horak took a knock and was down for what seemed like a long time. Once he was back on his feet, he seemed to take a fair while to get back to full speed.

Irish were gaining and retaining a lot of possession, especially from set pieces, but once again, we made a poor team look average. It has to be said that Newcastle do look poor without Wilko. I will be interested to see how or even if, their game plan changes when Jonny takes his place at the Madejski. Irish went 3-0 down after 14 minutes when a penalty was awarded for offside, just outside our 22. Botham made no mistake.

Barry Everitt’s attempted drop goal had missed just previously and was to set the tone for Barry’s kicking. It has to be said that the state of the pitch really didn’t suit Barry and he didn’t seem to get any purchase on his kicks. On the other hand, it is a winter sport and not all pitches are as good as the Madejski.

Newcastle were awarded another penalty for an offence at the breakdown. I have to say that from my vantage point almost at the opposite end of the pitch, it looked to have gone well to the left and wide. There was hesitation among the touch judges, and more than a little excitement among the drum corps, but it was signalled over.

Barry missed his first penalty attempt in the 24th minute. This was to be a further sign. The boot just didn’t seem to connect at all. By this stage, the Doc had introduced Mark Mayerhofler to his particular version of English rugby on more than one occasion. In fact, the battle of the centres was exactly that. Not much to write home about on the rugby front, but pretty bone crunching stuff.

Nick Burrows was extremely lucky to stay on the park when, in the 35th minute, he came extremely close to taking May out in the air. It was the correct call in the end as his studs were just touching the green stuff (just!). Fair play to the officials for not giving in to the baying crowd.

We were then treated to one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen, not just on a rugby pitch, but anywhere. Irish were awarded a penalty just outside the 22 and to the left of the posts. Barry again didn’t seem to connect, but as the ball sailed towards the right hand post, the touch judge was attempting to push the post away from the flight of the ball!!! It wasn’t close enough in any case, but what was that all about??

For all the possession and territory, the Irish team made the Newcastle defence look good. The backs lacked the imagination and flair that was so evident last week. We were back to the flatlining, standing on top of each other rugby that has been so much a part of this season. Where were those looping runs? Where was the space for Darren and Barry to operate in? Sackey saw more of the ball than Bish, but both were only getting scraps from broken play. Don’t get me wrong, we won our lineouts most of the time, managed to recycle it, but then either lost it or played it across the park. Incredibly frustrating to watch.

In the 34th minute, Newcastle extended their lead further when an attempted chip and chase by Horak skewed off his boot and straight to the waiting arms of Craig Newby, not long on the park, who made all of 20M before offloading to Tom May who had the legs to make the touch down. Botham slotted the conversion. 13-0.

The drumming increased in pace and there was a smattering of Falcons, Falcons but in general, the Newcastle support was quiet. This was taken to mean that they knew that they were on a loser from the start by certain of the Irish optimists.

Right at the end of the first half, Irish managed to register a score through the only route we seemed to be able to score from, getting the forwards to burrow, recycle and burrow again. From a lineout on the far side of the pitch, the ball was taken by Sheasby, out to Darren, on to Barry, the Doc and wide on the other side to Naka (who was having a poor game) about 15M out. Off he went, crash, offload, Declan, crash, offload, to Worsley, crash, offload to Naka… you get the idea. After a lot of hard work, Mike Worsley touched down almost in the corner, despite the hesitation from Mr. Leyshon before giving it as a score. Barry missed the conversion.

13-5 was to be the half time score.

The second half started as the first had ended, Irish with all the possession and territory, but Newcastle with the scores on the board. The expected front row changes were completed by the 50th minute and as per last week, Beefy was on form and oop for it! Every time he touched the ball, he was looking to go forwards and take no prisoners. There was a shift in how the forwards played too, in that in the first half, they were running into tackles on their own. Now, it was a paired effort. Two men going in to the tackle, in order to retain possession. Soon after, Digby departed to be replaced by Hentie who had a good showing. Gussie also made way for Daws in the 55th minute. Kieron made little impact on this dour game, but did nothing wrong in his play. The main difference was that our scrum was now going forwards and we had cottoned on to the Plan A of Newcastle in that we were now hitting Taione and denying Newcastle any chance of going forwards. If only the girls would begin to play like we know they can.

Newcastle had wrung the changes too, but again to little effect. Irish had the lion’s share of possession and seemed to be camped on the Newcastle 22 for most of the second half. Fair play to the Newcastle defence, they didn’t concede much in the way of ground or offences.

Botham extended the lead on the hour to 16-5 with a well-taken penalty. Just go and wallop it out of the mud. Tofty was attracting sheers from the less than sober drum corps as he was doing his customary warming up routine. Well, there was little else to cheer. The drum corps was rewarded in the 64th minute, when Barry was taken off and Tofty ran on. Much to the surprise of many it must be said. Tofty does have a different style about him and seems to stand further back from the breakdown than Barry, which seems to force the centres to stand further back too. Is there a definite instruction to do this? It’s something I have noticed whenever Tofty appears. Or is it simply the case that as Tofty doubles as a centre, he naturally adopts the position? In any case, Sheasby was unlucky to be held up in the corner after picking off the back of a 5M scrum and Newcastle cleared through May. That said, Tofty did miss his first kick at the posts.

Tom May had a great game alongside new boy Mayerhofler and shaded the rugby battle for me, apart from the physical battle they were both involved in. Godman’s kicking to touch, just like Barry’s was pretty poor and a high percentage didn’t make it.

The final quarter saw the territory/possession/tackling take its toll on the Newcastle defence. The fresher front row was starting to dominate the scrum and Newcastle were defending grimly. It certainly seemed to me that Newcastle hardly got out of their half in the last 20 minutes. As the clock ticked to 80, only the supreme optimists would believe that Irish were going to pull this one out of the fire. Even TPL must have doubted!

Anyway, the resolve to play to the end saw first Beefy go over in the corner, missed conversion! Then the Irish pack got the real bit between their teeth (why so late, boys?) and when Simon Halford burrowed over, it was down to Tofty to convert for the win with what would surely be the last kick of the game. Oh, how the drum corps looked away. Oh, how I managed to lose my mobile phone out of my pocket as I jumped for joy! Don’t worry, thanks to JoeV’s Mum, I recovered the phone. Well, you wouldn’t have asked JoeV, I’m saying no more!
It says a lot that our scores were deep into injury time at the end of both halves. But it was real beta-blocker stuff a Tofty stepped up for that last kick. The players came to acknowledge and thank us for our support, cheers guys, it is appreciated. Declan, there was no need to say that you left it a bit late, we knew!

The Newcastle supporters were philosophical about the loss and looking forward to the return of Jonny W, and the arrival of Mark Andrews. I think they will need more than that to stay in the Premiership, but look out next weekend, they will be scrapping for it big time.

In the cup, Rotherham looking to continue their giant-killing run and stake a claim for Premiership Rugby will be very difficult to beat. At the Madejski, it has to be a realistic prospect to believe that we will surpass them. On yesterday’s display?????

Complacency seems to be the enemy, just because we whop a team one week does not mean we can do it to the team we meet next week.

Anyway, please have a safe and happy Christmas and see you all on the 29th for more of the same (I really hope it is a lot better).



Newcastle: Noon, Botham, May, Mayerhofler, Shaw, Godman, Charlton, Peel, Makin, Hurter, Hamilton, Grimes, Taione, Dowson, Vyvyan.
Replacements: Grindal, M. Wilkinson, Christian, Newby, Ward, Isaacson, Otuvaka.
London Irish: Horak, Bishop, Burrows, Venter, Sackey, Everitt, Edwards, Worsley, Drotske, Hardwick, Strudwick, Kennedy, Gustard, Danaher, Sheasby.
Replacements: Martens, Mapletoft, Dawson, Kirke, Delaney, Hatley, Halford.
Referee: Steve Leyshon (RFU)

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