The final insult?

By Leipziger
March 28 2010

Anyone seen that episode of the Simpsons where Homer sits in his car outside church listening to football, banging his head on the steering wheel moaning “We stink, we stink, we stink”? That's pretty much how I felt by Saracens' sixth or seventh try today.  

In a match as one-sided as the forthcoming election looked a few weeks ago (not my line, a mate texted me it in the second half) Saracens ran in the tries against a generous Newcastle side who were just as toothless in attack.

Thank heavens Sale, Leeds and Worcester all got nil points as well this weekend.

For the first of three games in a week Steve Bates named a strong side, bringing Micky Young, Gcobani Bobo and Filipo Levi into the starting lineup. Brent Wilson played his 100^th game as a Falcon.

The Falcons attacked in the first few minutes and Jimmy Gopperth knocked over a drop-goal before adding a penalty from the halfway line, but some awful tackling allowed Schalk Brits to run through our defence like an international winger and he scored under the posts, Glen Jackson's kick putting Saracens ahead.

As Saracens continued to infringe, Gopperth kicked a second penalty to temporarily restore our lead but Jackson replied and then Brits again took advantage of weak defending for his second try on the right, Gcobani Bobo being one of a number of culprits in the Falcons' backline. Jackson again converted and though Gopperth kicked another penalty, Saracens were starting to dominate territory.

Gopperth and Brent Wilson missed tackles to allow Jacques Burger a chance on the right and only Alex Tait's tackle saved a certain try, before we had to put in some resolute defending in Saracens' left corner to prevent their forwards getting over.

Jackson missed his next three penalty attempts, one dropping short, one going wide and another hitting the post, although Saracens regained possession and threatened from the rebound, and though Charlie Amesbury prevented a try in the corner by pushing Andy Saull into touch at the last second, we lost possession in the lineout and the same player scored under the posts.

Jackson had an easy conversion and then kicked his second penalty to give the hosts a 27-12 half-time lead they were very good value for. Imagine if the normally ultra-reliable Jackson had not missed three penalties, and Tait and Amesbury hadn't made their last-gasp tackles – it could well have been 50 by half-time!! Our forwards, who had been dominant in the first ten minutes, had been very much hit and miss for the rest of the half.

There was still an outside chance of a bonus point, if the Master and his apprentices could get the defence tightened up and the forwards sorted at half-time.

With Josh Afu replacing Peter Browne, the Falcons attacked briefly at the start of the second period and ten minutes in Gopperth even knocked over another penalty. 12 points down with half an hour to go, things looked slightly up again. Until Jackson kicked his third penalty within minutes.

The Falcons threw on some Mark Sorenson and Rob Vickerman but it had little effect and Saracens broke from halfway with Noah Cato running at Danny Williams. Williams held off making the tackle, so Cato ran past the flat-footed Tim Swinson and by the time Williams bothered to try to make a tackle his opponent was at full-steam and then scored under the posts.

Jackson converted again, and also converted the last three tries. Ernst Joubert scored twice, around a try from our regular tormentor Richard Haughton (can we sign him PLEASE), to round off the scoring. For the last two tries we barely looked like we tried to tackle and perhaps the players were wary of injuries with the games now coming thick and fast, and it didn't really matter anyway by that stage. We did have a couple of minutes in the Saracens 22 in the late stages and tried to drive over the line, the first time we'd been near it all game, but couldn't get over.

. For the last two tries we barely looked like we tried to tackle and perhaps the players were wary of injuries with the games now coming thick and fast, and it didn't really matter anyway by that stage. We did have a couple of minutes in the Saracens 22 in the late stages and tried to drive over the line, the first time we'd been near it all game, but couldn't get over.

Other than that the last 20 minutes were pretty forgettable from a Geordie point of view. Actually, most of the game was.

The only good thing is that it looked like we had finally tried to play with the ball in hand, instead of kicking it away and inviting the opposition onto us. That is promising, if three months later than we started doing it last season, however the problem was that we needed the forwards to set a platform and while they were better than at Worcester today they were nowhere near as dominant as at Wasps.

Gloucester now is now is simply must-win, any win any way any how. We have a golden chance to put some points between ourselves and the bottom three before Sale take on Worcester on Friday. Please lads, don't let this chance go.

Better style, worse result

Discussion started by FalconsRugby.org.uk , 28/03/2010 20:35

FalconsRugby.org.uk
28/03/2010 20:35

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Dave_Rugby
28/03/2010 20:48

Nice report...but it looked aimless and indirect.
Tackling...with one exception, when Bobo took out a man late, was inept. Defence organisation left much to be desired...

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Monkey1
28/03/2010 23:56

Quote:

Dave_Rugby
Nice report...but it looked aimless and indirect.

Oh dear Dave, Leipy was only trying his best after a very disappointing day....

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Horus
29/03/2010 13:11

a one word report suffices - horrendous.

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Convex Hull
29/03/2010 15:36

It was a very special match for Sarries. It was the last home appearance for a number of players, most notably Jackson, who has earned a tremendous amount of respect from the club and supporters.

Sarries were stinging from a few sarcastic comments made by the pundits and other teams. It was far from a walkover in the first quarter, but in the second half Falcons looked tired and dispirited.

It was Falcons who caught the storm, but it could have been another GP team that had the misfortune to play them on that day; they were very fired up.

Stick behind your lads, a lot of them gave 110% percent.

Good luck for the rest of the season.

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Monkey1
29/03/2010 15:57

Cheers CH. I didn't realise it was Glenda's last game at VR, he seems to have been around in the premiership forever, good solid player indeed.

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