That’ll be five points thank you very much!

The web design training placement I was on was going to hell and I was knackered as a result. The cold weather meant that I needed a load of layers to avoid being caught off guard by freezing winds. And this was an Amlin Cup weekend rather than a Premiership weekend. Yet some things never change. I am still a Chiefs fan and my team are still class.

Newcastle were already a team we’d faced once this season, at Sandy Park with me watching my first game of the season from the SW Comms Stand. That proved to be a rough ride yet we still won. As for our Amlin Cup campaign so far, well our worst home performance of the season so far was followed up by one of our best ones a long way from home. Montpelier were still setting the pace at the top of the group and we were going to need a win here just to keep up.

So, for me it was load up with layers, head for the bus stop...and bomb it just as I saw the 78 pull in. Credit to the crew who held the bus for me. And so...off to Sandy Park for the last time in 2010. Karrimore was surprisingly quiet once I got in(people were actually sitting down there) and though I could have tracked down the crew to buy them a beer, hell if I knew where they’d got to and so it was grab chips and wait for the rumble.

Well it may have been largely a second string side that we fielded against the Geordies on this occasion(and speaking of Geordies – where were they?) but the fact is, we could have grabbed three tries in the first ten minutes. I’m not sure why we didn’t but the Falcons did manage to break out and come close to opening the scoring themselves...that would have been an injustice though, Ryan eventually did the honours, 3-0 Chiefs. Then finally the pack drove the ball over the line and the ref gave us the try, Ben Moon claimed it, Ryan does what he does. 10-0.

As the match went on it was clear that it wasn’t just the Geordie fans that were seemingly MIA – so were the Falcons team that gave us such a headache in the Premiership, somehow this time around we were outclassing them, 19 year old Herbie Stupple charging through to grab try number two before Ryan booted the ball to Jess(a wrestling match broke out in the meantime), wipe yourselves off Falcons, you’re dead already surely! 22-0 at half time. Against Premiership opposition. Wow!

Of course, I can never find my grandfather in the Undercroft, though it always helps if that’s where he is in the first place. As it was, I wasn’t let into the main bar in the West stand. Meh.

Anyway, I had more rugby to watch. Credit to the Geordies, they did get the first try of the second half when Mickey Young bolted through to open their account.

However the fact is that they weren’t able to handle us. We secured our first WBP of the season after Slade joined the party though they’d been at our mercy pretty much since we kicked off again.

The game largely slowed down after that, though Danny Williams, previously seen hacking our guys to pieces as part of Newcastle’s desperate first half efforts and getting binned as a result) went over for the Falcons second try. The odds of a comeback looked pretty slim though. Higgins finished them off, Davis had by that point been replaced by Dollman who did the rest.

Well, what else can I say, the web design stuff may still be a headache. Yet some things never change. Or do they? One WBP. One season ticket blagged off my grandfather for the Leicester match. Not so bad.

And who knows, maybe early next year I’ll be watching a group deciding rumble in the south of France on TV. A year is a very long time.