Newcastle Red Bulls
Still the only team without a point
By Leipziger
September 11 2011
Last week I was annoyed about the Falcons' defeat to Bath well into Sunday, it was that bad. But heading home through the South West countryside I felt OK, despite us remaining rooted to the bottom of the Premiership.
Whatever led to last-weekend's kick-fest seems to have been thrown out, or so we should hope. For a lot of yesterday's game the Falcons were in contention and dominated territory for much of the second half, though that said Exeter never seemed in real danger.
Our boys travelled to the south coast without Jamie Helleur and Andrew van der Heijden, and without much supporter optimism. Even I was not looking forward to the six-hour round-trip during the week.
However, come yesterday I woke up to radio commentary of Fiji v Namibia and was very ready for the weekend's big game at Sandy Park. Getting on the Tube in the right direction is always good too.
And so it was that come 3pm a small but loud Geordie crowd had gathered in the East Terrace South. Our good humour turned to horror as just short of 60 seconds in Josh Tatupu ran in down the left and touched down under the posts, having drifted unnoticed to his opposite wing.
The Newcastle shirt-wearing Leicester fan standing beside me confirmed that our defence had held out longer than the Tiggers' had a week earlier.
James Hudson almost hit back quickly but was hauled into touch just short of the tryline, and Exeter extended their lead with a penalty by Ignacio Mieres.
The Falcons got back into the game following a storming run through the middle by James Fitzpatrik, the ball being spread out wide for Tom Catterick, a late call-up for Alex Tait, to touch down. Jimmy Gopperth's conversion skewed wide.
Mieres and Gopperth exchanged penalties to give the Chiefs a 13-8 half-time lead, but following a combative display in the first 40 there was optimism among the away fans.
In the second half the Falcons spent a lot of time in the home half of the field but struggled to stretch the Devonian defence.
Indeed, the hosts were first on the scoresheet after the break, Sireli Naqelevuki barging through some bizarre stand-up 'tackles' metres in front of the posts, Mieres again converting and taking us out of bonus point range.
Exeter's third try was a breakaway after a suspiciously high tackle on Gopperth in front of the home goal went unpunished. Greg Goosen and Luke Fielden were unable to prevent Matt Jess setting up Phil Dollman for an easy run-in from the 22.
With a couple of minutes to go Fitzpatrick cut a straight line through a hole in the home defence to score a converted consolation try.
The more-respectable scoreline didn't last long. Exeter were not to be denied a bonus point and though nippy replacement scrum-half Jordi Pasqualin saved a try with a tackle on the far left, Jason Shoemark took the scoring pass and the touch judge did not hesitate to give the try.
Gareth Steenson missed the conversion but was probably the only person who cared because the Chiefs' 32-15 win takes them to the top of the Premiership.
So two tries, fair enough. A passing style of play we know works, at least that works better than the rubbish we saw against Bath, is also a positive.
As so many managers say, I saw enough spirit yesterday to know we can stay up, relegation is certainly not inevitable.
However, we need points more than performances. Never mind who our next game is against, a win is needed as soon as possible because in what is likely to be a heck of a relegation battle, the longer we wait for a win the harder it will probably become to get.
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Good luck. Lets see the Tigers beaten three times in a row.
I think perhaps the difference is that we all know there's is a temporary blip, can we say that about our form after 9 (I think?) AP losses in a row?
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