Newcastle Red Bulls
Leipy's top 10 games: 3-2
Cup final try
By Leipziger
August 11 2009
It's now time for my top three Falcons matches, and we begin with a Twickenham epic, before in my opinion one of our very most important wins.
3 Sale (Twickenham) 17/04/2004
In terms of fearless attacking rugby, this was possibly the best domestic cup final Twickenham has seen, if not one of the old stadium's greatest games. It was also one of the most exciting games the Falcons have ever and will ever be involved in, and though this is my list and, to my surprise, it isn't one of the top two, it was still a very special day.
Cup final day was around two months since I joined the “Rob Andrew out” bandwagon after watching two pathetic defeats to Leeds and Saracens. I was living in Leipzig that season, and so only went to I think ten games overall, but what I wasn't seeing didn't seem much better than what I was.
Our route to the final, via Rotherham, London Irish and Pertemps Bees (after beating Wasps in probably the English Cup's biggest upset ever) wasn't the hardest ever, certainly not compared to Bath, West Hartlepool, Saracens and Richmond in 1999, but we were there and we were there to win.
I flew back to England the previous Sunday, having somehow made it to Erfurt Airport despite a lack of preparation on how to get there from the city centre, and had to hastily rearrange a planned night in Manchester, but on Saturday morning it was the main event.
The coach trip to Twickenham was not without its controversy, as the driver was concerned that we had no qualms either starting on the beer at 7am nor filling up all the rubbish bags by 9am, and at the first stop announced he was going no further while we were drinking. Some negotiation persuaded him to go on, on condition we put the beer under the bus before entering London to keep the police happy.
When we got to Twickenham, it turned out that the kick-off of the final had been put back an hour to 3.30pm due to a fire. So me mum and I went for a wander and ended up at the Stoop, where I'd never been before, and got talking to some Sale fans. One said to me it was a shame that we wouldn't see the best and second-best fly-halves in England (Wilkinson and Hodgson) against each other, I replied that we'd have to make do with the second and third-best (Hodgson and Walder).
Getting back to Twickenham at quarter past two, it turned out the kick-off was back to 2.30pm. Only the RFU could cock-up in such a way, as I'm sure some people will have missed some of the game.
For the record, the following starting team was named by Rob Andrew: Joe Shaw, Tom May, Jamie Noon, Mark Mayerhofler, Michael Stephenson, Dave Walder, James Grindal, Ian Peel, Nick Makin, Micky Ward, Garath Archer, Stuart Grimes, Jon Dunbar, Warren Britz, Hugh Vyvyan (captain).
As in 2001, we opened the scoring early on when Warren Britz went over from close-range, Walder converting, and though Walder scored a penalty too Steve Hanley's try and three kicks from Charlie Hodgson saw Sale leading at half-time, before things got really exciting.
With both sides staying committed to a fast attacking game plan, Hugh Vyvyan gave us the lead again before Mark Cueto put Sale back in front, and a Hodgson penalty extended the Sharks' lead to 23-17.
The oft-criticised Joe Shaw was the next to score, diving under the posts in elation before Walder's conversion put us a single point ahead. As I along with thousands of other Geordies screamed and sang for our team, and we saw Hugh Vyvyan on the big screen shouting encouragement on what turned out to be his last game in a black shirt, it's at this point that I remember the girl sitting next to me offering me some wine, and I must have been half-cut as I accepted it.
Chris Mayor's converted try put Sale back in command, but two penalties from Walder levelled the scores. As with three games to go the previous season, it was now level and anybody's game. With the atmosphere at boiling point, the cup final was almost sudden death now, and Sale drew first blood with a penalty.
It was not over though. Vyvyan, who had put in a pounding performance, charged down a kick on the Sale line with just four minutes left and as the Falcons recovered possession, replacement Phil Dowson scored to send his team and 15,000 travelling blacks delirious. The priceless conversion put us four points ahead at 33-37 and although Sale attacked, when we got the ball back Walder booted into touch and it was all over. The cup was ours again!
Wow, I'm tired just writing that! The trip home was full of drinking and singing, and by 11pm I think I was the only one on our coach still awake as I was suffering a sore back that kept me up. The next day I had half lost my voice from too much alcohol and singing, but didn't care. I've often said there's a different feeling the morning after the Falcons have won, and the feeling morning after they've won the cup was certainly different but very satisfying.
2 Bristol (A) 13/02/2009
This was it; Judgement Day. Friday the 13th, Bristol v Newcastle. Possibly the biggest league match English rugby has ever seen with both teams struggling financially and the real possibility that, with one of us almost guaranteed to go down, the one that did may never return.
It's funny how, when writing about these games, obscure details come back to me. On this day, I'd been to work and then called me mum from the train at Paddington, to discover a lot of the travelling fans were already hammered at 4pm. Then I got the newspaper out – I don't normally start reading on a train until the journey is underway but when I started reading about a 13-year-old father in Eastbourne I had to make an exception!
At the start of last season I offered to do the radio for this game as I was basically sick of going to Bristol, having a rough time getting to and from the game and seeing us get beaten anyway, so I thought I might as well get in for free. As the season panned out as expected, with us and Bristol at the bottom of the table, I began to wish I was going to be in the crowd at the Memorial Stadium, but at least there wouldn't be any shortage of issues and action to talk about with Kev 'n' Smithy.
As it turned out, I got the train to Temple Meads station for the first time when going to Bristol, rather than Parkway, and found it a lot easier to get to the ground and back after to get the last train back to London, and combined with two horrible Friday nights in Worcester in 2008, Bristol is no longer my least favourite away ground.
Anyway, with Dave Thompson putting on four free coaches for fans, the Falcons had a lot of support in the South West as we looked to protect and extend a seven-point lead over our hosts and take a giant step towards staying in the Premiership.
I'm sure we don't need to go over the details again as any Falcons fan who doesn't know what happened in this game would have had to have been on Mars. Suffice to say that by the time Andy Perry scored just his second try in a black shirt to secure our first away win since December 2007 and first try bonus point since the opening day of 2007/08, we were all pretty much in dreamland.
The final score was 3-35, so it wasn't necessarily a tension-filled game, at least not once the first couple of tries had been scored, but it was a huge win and with a 12-point advantage we were almost secure in the top division for 2009/10. Four more wins, making a run of six in a row, made absolutely sure of that, and it was a night not to be forgotten by all of those lucky enough to be there.
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Should be up in the next day or two, as by Saturday we'll have some real action to occupy our minds.
I struggle to remember 10 individual games!
The Sale cup match definitely would be in there, as would the match v Sarries (May 2003) when we avoided relegation, Bristol this season for the same reason, any time we're beaten Tigers, and then I get stuck.... they all blur into one after that - or I remember moments of games but not the game or result!
oh and one last match which'll only make sense to a handful of people - that Irish match when geordie monkey chucked at strop at how bad we were playing and flounced out of the North Stand, before coming skulking back as we bagan to fight back.... classic
I think whilst i was sulking under the west stand with Monkey 1 and watching it on the monitors they scored 3 tries.
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