By Tim Griffiths
April 27 2006

Pleasant spring sunshine welcomed us to Kingston Park for the second time in 2 days – well we’d spent Saturday afternoon in the clubhouse watching the games on the telly.

Luckily for a pasty boy like me we were booked into the South Stand which afforded shade for the full duration of the encounter and saved much pain.

Next to us on the terrace was a sizable group of local Falcon supporters accompanied by a chap covered in balloons (no Marie – they weren’t green!) but British reserve prevented asking why. Luckily the stadium announcer let us in on the secret but more of that at half-time.

The game started 4 minutes late! All the players were there as was the referee and his mates dressed in a truly awful light blue ensemble but for some reason everyone was kept waiting before the game started. When they were allowed, Falcons kicked off to Irish and almost immediately Beefy was being talked to for an indiscretion followed in short order by Matt Burke kicking the Falcons into the lead.

The restart was well recovered by Irish and some enterprising and entertaining play followed as all 15 men looked to pressurise the Falcons line and the game surged left and right before a Mike Catt kick was slightly over-hit and Falcons could relieve from the lineout. However the box kick was collected by Sailosi Tagicakibau and the pressure reapplied. A Falcons knock on was picked up by Olivier Magne who tried an ambitious drop-goal from nearly half-way – it didn’t miss by much either! At the ensuing scrum the binding was incorrect and the Falcons had a clearing penalty.

The Falcons pressed but could do no better than to get back to the same spot from which Burke had kicked the points where Declan failed to roll  off a tackle to give Mr Burke another go. This time he missed much to everyone’s surprise and Irish relieved the pressure with the drop-out. There was a brief period of rugby-ball tennis as both sides missed touch but Matt Burke’s one handed take as he used the other to shield his eyes was a thing of beauty.

Irish were given a penalty for something, I’ve no idea what! The combination of being behind the posts and Mr Owens bizarre refereeing made it difficult to follow. His signal for advantage being played was indistinguishable from his imprecations to stay behind the back foot at the breakdown. Occasionally when possession changed on the ground he seemed to develop a sort of Tourettes Syndrome of the arms or do a hokey-cokey on his own! So I gave up trying to understand what he was doing and just went with the flow.

Anyway Riki hit a good touch with the kick but Irish lost the ensuing lineout and Falcons broke from deep. Some good shepherding by Delon and Tagicakibau made the winger, Elliot kick and unluckily it rolled straighter than any rugby ball has a right to and went dead for a scrum back. Irish applied more pressure and Newcastle, when they got hold of the ball could do little more than kick it away. From one such kick Topsy took the ball and jinked up the right wing, laid it back for his mates and some impressive jinking, running, offloading and passing by (seemingly) everyone searing white was finished off by Robbie Russell who powered over for the first try. Riki converted and all the Irish pressure had finally amounted to something concrete.

From the restart normal service was resumed and Irish applied pressure which the Falcons resisted. A break by Colin Charvis led to an offload 
to Matt Burke who, in the process of attempting to gather the ball showed all his ribs to Riki Flutey who took the opportunity and delivered a wicked hit to them. Mr Burke not unreasonably took a while to regain his feet. Irish pressed again and one of the Falcons was penalised for something (possibly stepping on the grass?) and Riki extended the lead to 7 points.

There followed another kicking duel which seem to fill such long chunks of the modern game. At this point my notes have become more cryptic  than normal and I’ve mention of a Newcastle knock on followed by a Newcastle line-out so I think I might have dozed off for a bit – apologies. The line-out was a good one though with a Falcons training ground move that involved rolling the ball behind his own line by Andy Long! Nigel Owens correctly decided that it constituted ‘not straight’ and Irish boomed a clearing kick down the ground. Long was probably still upset by the previous line-out and Irish stole this one too and applied the now trademark pressure. Many phases were carried by forwards and backs alike as the play surged from one side of the pitch to the other. Surely a gap would open up. It eventually took a lovely miss pass to Topsy Ojo by Riki that saw the winger evade the defence and twist and turn like a twisty-turny thing to dot the ball down over the whitewash. Riki managed to spanner the seemingly simple conversion miles wide but Irish looked in control at 3 – 15.

More good breaks were forthcoming with Olivier Magne, Declan Danaher and Bob Casey particularly catching the eye but more often involving the whole team. However the Falcons resistance held firm. Around this time Rob Andrew decided he needed to shake things up and changed the hooker and replaced Dave Walder with Jonny Wilkinson. The change was an effective one! Newcastle now looked potent in attack with good lines  and powerful running making dents in the Irish defence and from an Irish perspective it all got a bit scruffy.

As the half seemed to be winding down Matthew Tait stood Tiesi up and ran round him with a display of some of the best balanced running I’ve ever seen. Topsy dragged him down but he unloaded to the winger who put in a deft grubber and was levelled by Paul Hodgson. Matt Burke hacked  on but the ball went dead in goal while the Falcons round me were baying for Dodge to be carded as soon as he recovered from the blow to his head – this didn’t happen as he’d done nothing much wrong and the drop-out was the upshot.

Almost immediately some more Falcons inventiveness saw Tom May put in on the right with a clear overlap only for Dodge to clatter him down with  a superb last ditch tackle. Newcastle recovered the ball and while they were moving it left caught the Irish defence offside, no advantage was forthcoming and the easily kickable penalty was spurned in the search for a try. However Matthew Tait quickly tapped and then, just as quickly fell down and knocked on! From the ensuing scrum, Irish - as is now the custom attempted to play rugby out of defence and had got as far as their 10m line when play was held up. Sanity was restored as Dodge chipped the ball to touch and the half ended with the visitors still 12 points ahead.

During the break we were introduced to Nick “Speedy” Andrews – the aforementioned chap with the balloons! It turns out that he’s getting married shortly so his best man and he were dragged out to compete at goal kicking – Nick won! He’s apparently an ex Metropolitan Police officer, still playing rugby at the age of 52 and the entire stag party were great fun throughout the day.

The second half started in a fairly casual fashion for Irish who seemed to think that they’d done enough, symptomatic of this was an Olivier Magne knock on with an overlap outside within seconds of the restart. Falcons attacked and a break by Parling nearly undid the Irish defence and had he passed to Tait on his outside the try was almost guaranteed, however he didn’t and was penalised for holding on. The penalty was kicked to the corner; Olivier Magne took the lineout catch and was in possession when the drive crossed the line. However some brilliant Falcons defending had turned him on his back and the TMO took far longer that he should have done to decide it was no try.

Falcons have started the half like they finished the last one and play drives up and down the park with possession changing regularly. Irish make good use of the breeze to pin Newcastle back though, first a Mike Catt kick that looks like it might roll dead held up just over the line for a drop-out. Next another high kick from Catty has to be fielded by the Falcons 6 who can’t avoid stepping into touch as he takes it to set up an attacking Irish lineout but it comes to nothing. Still the Falcons look to have much more penetration than early in the game and good breaks see them in Irish territory time and time again but the Irish defence is unbroken with some great cover tackles coming in from the back 3 in particular.

With three quarters of the game gone the half time score remains unchanged then a loose ball on the right wing is pounced on by Tagicakibau who runs away from the turning defence, gives them a cheeky wave on the 22 and then charges over to dot down. Riki adds the conversion and the Irish lead is 22 points to 3.

From the kick-off the ball finds its way into Mike Catts hands and a booming touch kick pins the Falcons back towards their 22. To make matters worse for the home side the lineout is overthrown and the ball moved left. Gonzalo Tiesi stands Matthew Tait up to return the favour from the first half and darts over through some pretty poor, flappy tackles to score. Despite the conversion being almost the same place as the one he hit some minutes earlier Riki pulls it across goal to leave Irish a 24 point lead with more than three quarters of the game gone.

Riki Flutey is substituted in favour of Shane Geraghty and while the side seem to be reorganising themselves a Delon Armitage kick misses touch and is gathered, Jonny Wilkinson makes a superb long pass to the 8 McCarthy who backs himself to go round the outside. Delon gets back to drag him down but the offload to his back row partner Ben Woods leaves the flanker the simple task of crossing the line despite another despairing tackle by Topsy (I think!).

Irish chase the kick-off and Declan is deemed to be guilty of slowing down the Falcons possession and receives a yellow card for his trouble.  Newcastle put the ball in the corner but Nick Kennedy (on for Bob Casey) steals the lineout and Irish kick it to touch upfield. Nick repeats the feat at this line too and the ball is hammered upfield again. However touch is missed and Newcastle counter-attack with the ball eventually reaching Matt Burke who puts Tom May in from distance. He outpaces the cover and breaks through a Mike Catt tackle to score in the corner and the home crowd believe again. Surely time is nearly up?? There’s no way of knowing seeing as how the countdown clock is not being used in this competition and no announcement has been made regarding time added. Jonny misses the kick but the score is now 15 – 27 and I think we’ve been here before!

Irish again contest the kick-off and force a turnover from a Falcons knock-on. The ball is whisked right and Delon offloads to Nick who offloads to Shane but he’s hit as the ball reaches him and knocks it on through the in goal area! That would have calmed the nerves but it’s not to be…

A Wilkinson clearance is well fielded by Sailosi but despite ducking under the first tackle he’s bundled into touch. From the lineout the Falcons move the ball at speed through more hands than I could note before it ended back on the right with Noon(?) running it round the Irish defence and under the sticks. The conversion from Jonny goes over in short order and the gap is down to 5 points with who knows how much time remaining – can’t be much?

A final penalty against the Irish is kicked to the corner; again the Irish steal the lineout but take the ball into touch too soon and Falcons get another go. Contrary to all expectation they take the catch and drive over. The TMO is again roused from his reverie and makes a couple of cups of tea while he looks at length at the replay. The try is not given and Falcons have an attacking scrum. Several phases of probing round the flanks get nowhere when suddenly the ball is whisked wide, Matt Burke is in the line draws his man and passes to Tom May who knocks on. The referee blows for full-time and Irish have won and are in the final. However the last few minutes have been so draining that it’s hard to take in.

The Falcons crowd sportingly congratulate us and wish us well for the final that I still can’t really believe we’re in. The home crowd were great value throughout and there were some enquiries about the Fairies shirt that I was wearing. The principles of Fat Bloke Sevens were explained and seemed to go down well. There may be some orders for shirts from the Northeast – could there be an entry for the 7’s too?