Newcastle Red Bulls
Falcons disappoint in tight win
By Leipziger
December 24 2012
The sign of a good team, at least good at their level, is apparently that they can win when playing badly.
That might well be, but normally a team's game plan would be correct, even if the execution was not as good as fans might hope.
Yesterday, the Falcons' strategy in the second half seemed to be to get kickable penalties and then let Joel Hodgson kick for goal. It almost led to us failing to win a competitive game for the first time this season, as a dogged London Scottish became the first side to leave KP with a losing bonus point in 2012/13.
I suppose we got the four points though and our lead at the top of the table at Christmas is 16 points, though Bedford have a game in hand.
This is going to be tricky to write as it wasn't the most eventful match I've ever seen. The Falcons again went behind as James Love kicked the first points of the match with a penalty. Our first chance was set up by an excellent break from Joel Hodgson from halfway, continued by Luke Fielden who could not get through the defence.
Hodgson also foiled probably Scottish's best try-scoring chance. With Dave McCall steaming into the 22, Joel dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the attacker's legs, stopping him dead. It was an excellent tackle and put many of the stand-up failures we see to shame.
The deserved man of the match equalised with a penalty but while Love missed his next two penalties attempts, his fourth go at goal went between the posts.
Yes, it was very windy. I was pretty sure that one or both of the north goal posts were going to snap at some stage, such was the angle they were bending at.
Hodgson again equalised and the game was level at 6-6 at half-time. Proper attacking had been at a premium, the Falcons' best chance being a succession of scrums on the left late on.
Love kicked his third penalty early in the second half, Hodgson again replying.
Home fans were starting to get restless and there was concern when Taiasina Tu'ifua was sent to the sin bin for a big hit on Tyler Hotson that laid the second-rower out for a minute or two. However the Falcons produced probably their best ten minutes of the afternoon while down to 14 men.
Hodgson knocked over a penalty to put us into the lead for the first time, though the next two shots skewed wide. One dropped short, but no Falcons had bothered to chase the ball, and the second, after some strong scrum pressure, flew dead and represented a real wasted chance.
One could say that hindsight is a wonderful thing but supporters wanted the team to keep playing rather than gamble on the wind.
Restored to 15 men, the Falcons finally began to lay siege to the Scottish line and the TMO, eventually, said no try when a number of bodies piled up on the tryline. Tu'ifua picked up just short of the line as the scrum rumbled forwards, but again Scottish held out.
Late on the exiles looked to have been given a penalty around the 22 in injury time, which would have given them a big decision to make as to whether to kick for goal or go to the win, but after discussion with his touch judge the cinematic referee Matthew Carley brought play back to nearer halfway.
The Falcons managed to hold out but what should have been a rousing lap of honour at full-time after a 12th league win out of 12 matches and a 16th competitive win from 16 games overall this season, the atmosphere was rather flat.
We got the win, that's perhaps all that matters. I hope that yesterday was just a trial of this game plan, and that a) now that it has not worked very well some work is done on why, and b) the team are more adaptable / allowed to be more adaptable in future.
The way performances have been recently, Newport at home excepted, the danger of us getting caught short is real. Hopefully if it does happen, it won't be in the play-offs.
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Stumbleupon24/12/2012 08:12
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Thanks for the report & for all your excellent articles this year. We missed you yesterday, by the time we got back to the south everyone had decided to go home. Hope you have a good Christmas & we will see you in the new year.
The team is a work in progress with some great youngsters being introduced to the team, some experienced internationals arriving and a new world class coaching team.
We've wobbled a couple of times notably at Bedford and against LS but in spite of much rotation, we haven't lost a single game.
Some of the decissions were odd, even more so whilst watching in the West bar, ref cam does little to add to the experience, especially as at scrum time all you see are the scrum-halves, but other than his break down the wing in the first half, Fielden spent the whole game unmarked & standing on the touchline, waiting for a cross field kick. He possibly should have gone looking for work, but others should have been looking for him.
I stand to be corrected, but it looked like Heuller calling the moves, not Joel, so while the MotM was deserved, I would like to see a bit more spark & invention at 9 & 10. That & a bit more depth, they were so flat - the previous game Hudson scored a corker of a try coming in to the line at speed & crashing over, I don't remember anything like that against Scottish.
Hey ho, my twopenny worth.
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