Heartbreaker

By Leipziger
July 30 2009

OK, so I got together a list of 11 games and I couldn't leave one out so it's actually my top 11 games from the 13 years I've been watching the Falcons, concentrated around certain periods, and more likely to be recent as back in the late 1990s I didn't go to away games, plus as I'll explain when we get down to number one, I wasn't as big a fan then as I am now.

Anyway, without further ado:

11 Richmond (A) 03/04/1999

Starting with the one game on the list I didn't go to, this Tetley's Bitter Cup semi-final was the first match I can remember being nervous about. In three proper seasons of professional rugby, we'd lost two and drawn one of our games away to Richmond, including being hammered during an Agustin Pichot and Adam Vander masterclass on the first day of 1998/99. And the only away games we'd won as Champions were at West Hartlepool, Bedford and Sale. To be honest, I just couldn't see us winning.

Yet the Falcons defied the absence of Marius Hurter and Jonny Wilkinson's first-half injury to pull an amazing performance out of nowhere at the Madejski Stadium. Rob Andrew pulled the strings on one of his last appearances and Va'aiga Tuigamala's two tries sent us to our first professional Cup Final.

Apart from the pre-game nerves and the excitement while watching it, I remember that at the time me Mum was digging up her front garden, and I'd taken a few hours off to watch the game. Afterwards I went outside to start digging again, and realised I wanted to go to the final at Twickenham. Having no money, I was only 16 at the time, I was reliant on my parents and indeed my Dad and I did go to the final only to see Wasps beat the Falcons in a poor game from our point of view.

But thinking back to that April just over a decade ago reminds me that I'm lucky that now, as a single working man, I can go to pretty much any match I want.

10 Gloucester (A) 12/04/2003

Following the only game on this list that I wasn't at comes the only one we lost, and although there have been other defeats that were just as depressing, there have been few that left me feeling as gutted as this one.

On the morning of 12^th April 2003, the Falcons were one point adrift at the bottom of the table with a game in hand – unfortunately that game was away to runaway league leaders Gloucester, who had just a week earlier beaten Northampton to win the Powergen Cup at Twickenham.

In the week leading up to the game I had been in Manchester Central Library reading for my long essay, and saw a chap wearing a Cherry and White shirt. I wondered whether he was a big Gloss fan, studying away as I was, and thought that if he was he probably wouldn't be too bothered about missing a home game against the team bottom of the league. I felt jealous that they were top of the league and had won the cup, as we fought for our lives.

So it was with little optimism that I travelled to Kingsholm for the first time and stood behind the north goal, and the noise from the Shed was like nothing I had ever heard before at a Premiership match (this being the early days of the South Stand). Initially at least, I needn't have worried.

In the first half, Stuart Grimes and Chris Fortey were sent off but more importantly Joe Shaw and Mark Mayerhofler scored tries, with Jonny Wilkinson kicking a conversion and penalty, to put us 0-15 up at half time. It could have been even better had Michael Stephenson kept to the back of the ruck after Wilkinson was hauled down with the posts beckoning just minutes before the break.

I remember texting my then girlfriend the score and saying that there was a long way to go still, but never know... and just minutes into the second half James Grindal extended the lead. For anyone who wasn't there, the scoreboard was just beautiful: Gloucester 0 Newcastle 20. Unfortunately, it gave Gloucester a kick up the butt and they came back at us, as they tend to do at Kingsholm, and with just minutes left the score stood at 18-23 to the Falcons.

With the last play of the match, Thinus Delport forced his way over and Ludovic Mercier's conversion won the match for Gloucester. At full-time I just sat down, head in hands, thinking of what an opportunity we had blown. More than one home fan shook my hand and I dare say those of many other Falcons fans, pointing out that we'd been very unlucky. Thanks, but I still felt absolutely gutted.

Anyway, the bonus point moved us level at the bottom of the table with just three games left and of course we all know what happened in the following weeks. It was certainly one of the defeats I'll never forget.

9 Newport (A) 23/10/2004

In the Falcons' first foray into the Heineken Cup in 2001/02, we had lost twice to Newport, and so it did not look good when we were drawn to their new form, Newport Gwent Dragons, in the 2004/05 competition. The group stage started with a trip to a rainy and cold Rodney Parade at the end of October.

With Jonny Wilkinson's comeback limited to the first phase of Premiership matches, the Rob Andrew brought his side to Wales with Dave Walder at fly-half, and James Isaacson made his only ever professional start at hooker. It was another match that promised to be incredibly difficult, and two penalties to one saw us 6-3 down heading into the break until Mike McCarthy (now dating an old classmate of my brother's, I hear) charged down a kick on the Newport line and fell on the loose ball for a try which Matthew Burke converted.

Pretty much everybody in the Geordie area of the stadium erupted, apart from my poor then girlfriend who was squashed in her seat by me and the guy on the other side of her hugging and dancing. Still have no idea who he was.

The second half was intense under the open, dark heavens but some strong forward play and excellent tactical kicking by Walder saw the Falcons through, giving us an unlikely victory but without doubt a great one that set us on the road to Paris.