By BrianC
September 20 2006

We continue with a trip to the North East and a fixture against Newcastle Falcons next on our agenda. Yet again from a LI point of view it is a shame that this is a Friday night fixture.

Given the distance from home we will probably only see a sprinkling of away support. Kingston park is a great rugby venue. It is a pity that so few visitors will get to experience it.

Newcastle go into this game without one of their major assets. Johnny Wilkinson, arguably the most talented and certainly the most bankable player in the English game when it comes to attracting crowds, has yet again succumbed to injury. He will be out for two to three months.

They must now regret letting Dave Walder go in the close season. They still have two potential stand ins for the great man. Toby Flood is usually first choice, there is also a Dutch teenager, Tim Visser. He made his premiership debut as JW’s replacement against Worcester and scored the winning try in the last minute. Talented though he undoubtedly is, one does wonder about his lack of experience in what is arguably the toughest league in the world.

Like ourselves Newcastle have had a patchy start to the season. In the opening game they were narrowly beaten at Northampton. They were regarded by many as fortunate to win their first home game against Worcester in round two and they went down badly at Saracens last Sunday. Currently they sit just behind us at 10th in the table with 5 points.

Last season we played the Falcons three times. Our 20 - 23 GP victory at Kingston Park in front of the Sky TV cameras was the harbinger of the many great performances we were later to see. Perhaps our worst performance of the rest of season was in the return fixture last March when we went down 6 - 9. If we think last Saturday was bad we should recall that. The score was a true reflection of the game, a dire one which they just edged. Our third match of last season was the nail bighting ECC semi-final in Newcastle. In this we nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory but held on to win 22 - 27.

Our second half performance against Bristol last week was so poor that I hardly dare call this one. We have only one win from our first three games and a squad who are struggling to gel. Even with their poor start home advantage must make Newcastle favourites for this game.

This is a big game for us. Win it and we’ll be in with a chance of making something of this season. If we lose mid table mediocrity will be the surely best we can hope for.