By Falcon1 (22/12/02)
December 23 2002

In the post-match press briefing, it was clear that both Rob Andrew & Conor 0'Shea were keen to focus minds on next week's clash in the Premiership, rather than a game that saw London Irish progress in a dramatic last few minutes to a quarter-final meeting with Premiership aspirants Rotherham. "Next week is far more important. Today we wanted to win, but in the grand scheme it was irrelevant", said the Newcastle Director of Rugby. And perhaps more surprisingly his opposite number seemed to share that view, stating "We have a massive, massive game next week."

So was this a match to be forgotten? The lowest crowd of the season, barely over 2,600, might think so.

This was not an impressive performance by either side. Both showed flashes of endeavour but neither can be said to have dominated play, despite O'Shea’s post-match assertion that The Exiles had "all the possession and could have won easily".

We witnessed a game of two halves.

In the first half, despite some periods when The Exiles briefly threatened the Falcons' line, the scoring reflected Falcons' dominance. At half time it was 13-5 to the Falcons.

The first attack of the game came from Epi Taione who took two players out only to lose the ball, in all too familiar style. However it was The Exiles who attempted to secure the fist score, Everitt missing a drop goal attempt after nine minutes.

Following a couple of attacks by the Falcons, The Exiles conceded a penalty on their own 22 metre line in front of the posts. Botham continued where he left off last week, slotting the ball over to give the Falcons the first score.

The pattern of the first half then established itself, The Exiles would concede penalties from which Falcons would kick for a line-out downfield, followed by a drive as a result of which Irish would be forced to concede another penalty. After 20 minutes, Falcons were 6-0 up thanks to another Botham penalty.

The best Falcons move of the first half came after 25 minutes when a series of drives by the forwards, reminiscent of their play last week against Treviso but against a bigger pack, saw them progress to within ten metres of The Exiles line, only for the hard work to be wasted by a pass that went behind Godman, to be seized upon by The Exiles and taken back to the Falcons 22 metre line.

Worryingly a number of Falcons line-outs were also messed up, with gaps being left through which The Exiles pack could plunder at will.

Then 10 minutes from the interval, Craig Newby arrived on the pitch. He immediately made his impact by intercepting an Exiles kick through and passing the ball to Tom May, who gratefully touched down under the crossbar. With an easy conversion by Botham, the score stood at 13-0 to the Falcons with only a short time to go to the interval.

London Irish then showed their spirit. A series of attacking moves saw them reach the Falcons try-line and some aggressive rucking resulted in Mike Worsley going over for a try on the left wing. Horak missed the conversion attempt.

With Botham missing a penalty attempt just before the interval-whistle, the score at the break stood at 13-5 to the Falcons.

So what happened at half-time?

The Exiles came out fired-up to defend the cup they won back in April. The Falcons came out seemingly looking to defend their score rather than build upon it. The only exception was Taione, who was getting into his stride with a number of searing attacks. Not only that but he was managing to retain and re-cycle the ball.

Everitt missed a penalty attempt and shortly afterwards O'Shea rang the changes, substituting Worsley and Drolske by Hatley and Halford. There followed a period of sustained London Irish pressure characterised by short passes and constant changes of direction. Thanks to solid Falcons defence, however, these made no impact on the score-line.

Botham kicked another penalty following an infringement at a ruck on the Irish 22 metre line, whilst Everitt missed another penalty attempt, a sharp contrast with the last time these two sides met at Kingston Park when he kicked all twenty four points. He was substituted by Mapletoft.

With twenty minutes to the go, the Falcons were leading 16-5, but apart from a penalty from Botham had failed to capitalise on their half-time lead. Nevertheless with the hole in the middle of the back line patched up with the arrival of Mayerhofler, the Falcons fans sensed they were about to witness the exit from the competition of the cup-holders. Then everything changed.

Taione and Peel came off to be replaced by Isaacson and Otuvaka. The game entered stoppage time and London Irish scored two tries.

First Hatley went over on the right wing for an unconverted try to reduce the deficit to 16-10. Then Halford was bundled over to reduce the deficit to one point.

Mapletoft stepped up to slot the ball neatly over and seal a 17-16 victory.

After the game a pensive Rob Andrew put the defeat down to the fact that the Falcons 'did not see much ball in the last quarter'.

"Ultimately we allowed them too many opportunities from set pieces to recycle the ball and in the end the sheer weight of numbers proved too much."

O'Shea admitted to feeling sorry for Newcastle: 'That's a horrible way to lose, and a great way to win', he commented. Asked which was more important, the Powergen Cup or the next clash with the Falcons in the Premiership, O'Shea joked, 'Ask me after next week!'

For Andrew, that is one choice he longer needs to make.

Falcons starting line up:

15 Jamie Noon, 14 Liam Botham, 13 Mark Mayerhofler, 12 Tom May, 11 Joe Shaw, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Hall Charlton, 1 Ian Peel, 2 Nick Makin, 3 Marius Hurter, 4 Craig Hamilton, 5 Stuart Grimes, 6 Epi Taione, 7 Phil Dowson, 8 Hugh Vyvyan (Captain).

London Irish starting line up:

15 Michael Horak, 14 Justin Bishop, 13 Nick Burrows, 12 Brendan Venter, 11 Paul Sackey, 10 Barry Everitt, 9 Darren Edwards, 1 Mike Worsley, 2 Naka Drolske, 3 Rob Hardwick, 4 Ryan Strudwick (Captain), 5 Nick Kennedy, 6 Paul Gustard, 7 Declan Danaher, 8 Chris Sheasby.

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Falcons v Irish: Cup Preview

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