By Leipziger
August 20 2011

The Falcons continued their warm-up for the new season last night with a satisfactory 36-5 home win over Leeds.

A strong showing by our forwards set the platform for the Jimmy Gopperth-Jamie Helleur axis to direct a fast backline, and the gulf in attacking quality between the two sides will have been clear to the Leeds management.  That's why we're in different divisions I guess.

New season, new drama.  Until maybe 2pm yesterday it was as high in the air as a Tom May up-and-under whether I'd be getting to the game.  It was my fault really, but I thought my brother's girlfriend's brother (you get that at the back?) was going to do me a favour, then at the start of the week he decided that, since we've never met, he didn't trust me not to commit fraud.

Fair enough I suppose, since helping me commit fraud is exactly what I was asking him to do.

Anyway, with a bit more creativity (Leipy's imagination is second only to his reluctance to refer to himself in the third person), racing through work, and the timeliness of SE8's friendly neighbourhood postie, I was soon tearing up the English countryside as fast as, well, as fast as East Coast trains go.

Sitting in Gateshead for ten minutes wasn't part of the plan but seconds before kick-off Ma Leipy and I were in the front row at the north end of the West Stand.  I don't like it there – the touch judge keeps getting in the way.  Plus many years ago I had seats for row A that turned out not to exist.

Right, so to the game.  The Falcons took the initiative early on with some probing runs from Helleur, fellow new signing Ryan Shortland, and Luke Fielden.  Ashley Wells and Grant Shiells took to the Leeds front row with relish and we stole a few lineouts.

The breakthrough finally came just before the 20-minute mark, Tim Swinson diving over from close range on the left.  Gopperth missed the conversion (it might have been that one that hit the post).

Leeds then spent a long period on the attack impressive full-back Greg Goosen, I think, had to catch a crossfield kick on the Cardigans' far right to prevent a certain score.  Leeds equalised though through Lee Blackett – there were unconfirmed rumours that the conversion broke a windscreen in Tesco's car park.

There's nothing really wrong with the other team having a spell of possession in a friendly I suppose, it gives the defence a workout, but a clean sheet would have been nice.

Heading into the break the Falcons found their claws again and Shortland, who looks good on the evidence I've seen so far, raced over on the far left, before Gopperth scored the final try of the half under the posts, converting himself.

The second half was a midfield battle for a while and several replacements spoiled the flow of the game, though I guess both teams wanted as many players as possible to get a run-out.

Gopperth fought his way over for a second try on the night, before Goosen scored under the posts, as the Falcons pulled away.

Fielden scored the final try, intercepting a loose pass around halfway and legging it to the line. I noticed he did a stretch afterwards, as at the sevens at Harlequins.  Hopefully that's not a niggling injury.

Hopefully there were no injuries last night actually, although I seem to remember Luke Eves struggling a bit, can anyone confirm that that is true or that I made it up?

So a 36-5 win is always welcome, even against a Championship side in a friendly.  The new signings that started look good, but I'd have liked to have seen Jordi Pasqualin a bit more.  Hopefully we'll see a similar result in two weeks' time against Bath.