Falcons v Toulon

Newcastle:

15 Greg Goosen, 14 Luke Eves, 13 Jamie Helleur, 12 James Fitzpatrick, 11 Ryan Shortland, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Jordi Pasqualin,
1 Grant Shiells, 2 Joe Graham, 3 Euan Murray, 4 James Hudson, 5 Andrew van der Heijden, 6 Mark Wilson, 7 Will Welch, 8 Richard Mayhew

Replacements: 16 Ashley Wells, 17 Darren Fearn, 18 Dan Frazier, 19 Taiasina Tu’ifua, 20 Ally Hogg, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Chris Pilgrim, 23 Tom Catterick


Toulon:

15 Luke Rooney, 14 Jeremy Sinzelle , 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Geoffroy Messina, 11 Benjamin Lapeyre, 10 Julien Dumora, 9 Laurent Magnaval, 1 Eifion Lewis-Roberts, 2 Jean Charles Orioli, 3 Carl Hayman, 4 Konstantine Mikautadze, 5 Dean Schofield, 6 Pierrick Gunther, 7 Joseph El Abd, 8 Sevanaia Rokobaro

Replacements: 16 Mickael Ivaldi, 17 Xavier Chiocci, 18 Levan Chilachava, 19 Alafoti Faosiliva, 20 Jean Baptiste Bonnet, 21 Jonny Wilkinson, 22 Alexis Palisson, 23 Christophe Samson


Johnnys on the bench for the return but big Carl starts....

Fitzy v Basteraud will be like two tanks coliding in the midfield....

I think we can win this one....

I hope you do, even if I put down Toulon by 11 on sportsguru

Coverage from 7pm on Sky Sports 1. I think Newcastle will make it a close game but Toloun will just have too much for them by the end of the game. Shame not Steffon Armitage on hand to remind the new England management team of what they are missing.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Coverage from 7pm on Sky Sports 1. I think Newcastle will make it a close game but Toloun will just have too much for them by the end of the game. Shame not Steffon Armitage on hand to remind the new England management team of what they are missing.

Dont worry Sam...our on Will Welch will show them that

Wish i could get to the game...but work committments pah....ill catch it on sky though...

Toulon:
15 Luke Rooney, 14 Jeremy Sinzelle , 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Geoffroy Messina, 11 Benjamin Lapeyre, 10 Julien Dumora, 9 Laurent Magnaval, 1 Eifion Lewis-Roberts, 2 Jean Charles Orioli, 3 Carl Hayman, 4 Konstantine Mikautadze, 5 Dean Schofield, 6 Pierrick Gunther, 7 Joseph El Abd, 8 Sevanaia Rokobaro

Wow there is only player (hayman) there who started against Toulouse last weekend!

Is Jo El Abd..the ex bristol flanker?

GeordieFalcon wrote:Is Jo El Abd..the ex bristol flanker?

Yes.

I wish Redford Pennycook was playing. He has to have the second best name in pro rugby.

What's the wind like up there?

First European game of the weekend..

Looking good.

JW on the bench

LondonTiger wrote:What's the wind like up there?

Looks fresh on tv currently blowing 33mph and it's 4degrees c

http://www.xcweather.co.uk/

i know the weather is poor, its cold and so on, but it is already clear why Falcons are propping up the Aviva Table.

It's bloody freezing up here!

Tbh play often stops at Gopperth. As important as he is to us he really hinders any backline fluidity.

Shiells fronting up to Hayman well (he looks huge!) and young Welch looking handy at the breakdown

Falcons scrum is looking good, theri forward play is solid enough too.

Gopperth is awful... Kicks away everything.. Falcons wont score if he caries on playing like this...

He's normally not this bad but he kicks away a lot of ball, I'd love to see Catterick or Hodgson given a chance in the Amlin

Looks like it hasnt rained too much, pitch looks great

Hayman looks dire

Not often in modern times that you can say that the amateur Varsity mtch was ten times the quality of an Amlin Cup match...

Unfortunate weather was the winner on the night..

Well done Falcons, a solid effort, a great victory. They did enough, played with control and with spirit, most of all they played with Brains...

A very poor two weeks for the Fat Cats of European rugby...

6 - 3

Thats three games out of three for falcons i think...? Leading their pool.

Dreadful.

I saw about 10 minutes of first half and 30 of the second. I was impressed by hou Falcons pack went, passing seemed impossible and why, oh why were there not more Garryowens?

The pack were pretty good...and young Shiels really gave Hayman a propper game....
Also Fitzpatrick was again impressive physically at 12....

Things seem to be on the up....

But please replace.....GOPPERTH and that fat waste of space Mr Wells.....he's a disgrace to be called a rugby player....

Also Fitzpatrick was again impressive physically at 12....

What impressed me about Fitzpatrick was his work in the contact, not looking for the big smash he goes in hard then keeps the player up right and gets hands on the ball. He stripped quite a few big Toulon players in contact. Valuable turnovers that stopped Toulon gathering momentum.

As a semi-neutral, I was very pleased that Falcons picked up that win. They played the conditions better and looked more up for it. People disparaging that match ought to wind their necks in, it had plenty of decent rugby, especially when you consider the playing conditions.

Was very impressed with young Fitzpatrick, ripping the ball on at least three occasions. Not sure why you'd want to replace Gopperth Geordie, he's the reason Falcons are still in the AP, and last night was hardly going to be a kick fest was it?.

I think if Falcons can keep playing to their strengths as they did last night, there is a ray of hope for them in the league, they have some momentum now and that could make all the difference.

Time For Trumpton wrote:As a semi-neutral, I was very pleased that Falcons picked up that win. They played the conditions better and looked more up for it. People disparaging that match ought to wind their necks in, it had plenty of decent rugby, especially when you consider the playing conditions.

Was very impressed with young Fitzpatrick, ripping the ball on at least three occasions. Not sure why you'd want to replace Gopperth Geordie, he's the reason Falcons are still in the AP, and last night was hardly going to be a kick fest was it?.

I think if Falcons can keep playing to their strengths as they did last night, there is a ray of hope for them in the league, they have some momentum now and that could make all the difference.

Gopperth is an excellent kicker....but the guy doesnt know how to pass a ball....or get the backline running. With him theres only one option...Kick...Kick...Kick.

We have some good players in the backs...but they never see the ball. I've said it before...but i'd like to see young Catterick get a shot at the 10 position. He's young but he's another on the Falcons conveyor belt of talented 10's...and he WILL be able to get the backline moving.

Sam,

Yeah he stripped a the ball numerous times...really playing well at the moment.
An intelligent Tindall

Nonetheless, he is a valuable playing asset for Falcons, they would almost certainly have been relegated without him, and now there are some decent players coming through that may just save the day.

Hearing good thing about this Fitzpatrick lad, is he more of a 12 or 13?

Also, how did Hudson get on?

Hudson was man of the match...

Fitzy is a 12...powerful but shows aspects of knowledge..as sam raised above he ripped the ball in tackles several times...instead of just launching the players.....

Trump....the guy didnt save us from relegation...he was part of the cause we were in that position....

Was he? Well, you wouldn't know it now, what percentage of Falcons' points has he scored in the last 3 years?

Fitzy has came on leaps, don't think he'd ever progress to Int standard but he's becoming a decent premiership 12.

I thought young Welchy had a stormer too as well as Shiells, he was a real nuisance on the floor throughout.

I'm with you all the way on Gopperth GF

Pooly

Shiells played very well against Hayman...

Were you at the game mate....i couldnt make it so just had to watch it on telly.

Trumpton....so what that kicked all the points....if he had actually increased his pass percentage we may have scored tries...and turned narrow defeats in to victories....

You say that, but I stood on the East Terrace 2 Christmases a go and watched Falcons batter away at the Leeds line for the last 5 minutes of the match, all they wanted was 2 points to secure the win. They decided to try and score a try, when a drop goal would have done (and been eminently achieveable). Ergo, they lost the match. Poor decision making isn't the monopoly of Gopperth at Newcastle, may of their matches have been narrowly lost because of poor decisions from 1 -15.

I must be missing something, because everybody else, pundits included, seem to think that he's talismatic for Falcons. One things for sure, you're definately going down without him, with him, you might have a chance.

It's seems to be only Falcons fans who see Gopperths faults.

I wanted to go but I had a bit of a session on Wed night which I'm still recovering from so gave it a miss.

Time For Trumpton wrote:You say that, but I stood on the East Terrace 2 Christmases a go and watched Falcons batter away at the Leeds line for the last 5 minutes of the match, all they wanted was 2 points to secure the win. They decided to try and score a try, when a drop goal would have done (and been eminently achieveable). Ergo, they lost the match. Poor decision making isn't the monopoly of Gopperth at Newcastle, may of their matches have been narrowly lost because of poor decisions from 1 -15.

I must be missing something, because everybody else, pundits included, seem to think that he's talismatic for Falcons. One things for sure, you're definately going down without him, with him, you might have a chance.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one....

Which means you agree with the rest, and therefore, Gopperth cannot be held accountable to the degree you appear to think.

Neither side can argue for sure that Gopperth is the main reason for our lack of ball play or the reason we get points on the board.

It's my opinion that Gopperth holds us back and I'd like to have see Cattrick blooded a little more this season

Didn't think Catterick played that well last night, although the conditions didn't help.

Didn't he come on at wing?

He replaced Shortland

Time For Trumpton wrote:Which means you agree with the rest, and therefore, Gopperth cannot be held accountable to the degree you appear to think.

I think Falcon fans probably have a good idea of whats going on....and whilst the rest of the team havent been brilliant...no.10 is the lynchpin of the team....

How do you build up any kind of play..when your ten constantly hoofs the pill 40m down field just handing possession to the opposition.

If you are deliberately trying to wind me up...its working...

Well you can keep him anyway, Leicester don't need a flyhalf, wonder how long it will be before Fitzpatrick signs for Tigers...