Newcastle v L.Irish

Newcastle:
1 Shiells
2 Vickers
3 Murray
4 Fondse
5 Swinson
6 Hogg
7 Welch
8 Wilson

9 Pilgrim
10 Gopperth
11 Shortland
12 Fitpatrick
13 Helleur
14 Bedford
15 Goosen

Replacements: M Mayhew, Golding, Wells, Van der Heijden, Chudley, Hodgson, Sherrife.

London Irish

1 Lahiff,
2 Paice,
3 Rautenbach;
4 Kennedy (capt),
5 Evans;
6 Garvey,
7 Roche,
8 Thorpe.

9 Allinson
10 Bowden
11 Tagicakibau
12 Spratt
13 Joseph
14 Homer
15 Armitage

Replacements: Buckland, Dermody, Ion, Casey, Siggery, Yarde, Jarvis, Hodgson.

Is that Matt garvey at blindside for Irish?

I fancy a win here....

If you shove Gopperth to 12, Fitz to 13 and get Hodgson on at 10 then Falcons stand a good chance. Not sure Gopperth otherwise has the handling ability to provide Falcons with enough scoring chances.

The LI backrow looks rather diminished, where are they all?

Sam...you know my feelings on Gopperth

Geordie, what's your record like at home vs LI? I had it in the back of my mind that KP isn't usually a happy hunting ground for the Exiles? (but could be confusing them with Glaws/Wasps) - either way, a must win fixture, good luck, we'll see what we can do at Wasps to nudge them a little closer to you

With Murray, Shiells and Hogg in the side I'm certainly wanting Newcastle to win this one.

Watch out for Jonathan Joseph - an outstanding talent. I thought he was awesome off the bench against Edinburgh in the HC. The sooner England get that lad in the 13 jersey (or on the wing) the better I think.

funnyExiledScot wrote:With Murray, Shiells and Hogg in the side I'm certainly wanting Newcastle to win this one.

Watch out for Jonathan Joseph - an outstanding talent. I thought he was awesome off the bench against Edinburgh in the HC. The sooner England get that lad in the 13 jersey (or on the wing) the better I think.

Erm, and the worse for us?

Right, ignore what fES said, JJ is utterly useless, barely worth a place at Basingstoke 3rds

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Geordie, what's your record like at home vs LI? I had it in the back of my mind that KP isn't usually a happy hunting ground for the Exiles? (but could be confusing them with Glaws/Wasps) - either way, a must win fixture, good luck, we'll see what we can do at Wasps to nudge them a little closer to you

2004/5 Newcastle Falcons 23-16
2005/6 Newcastle Falcons 20-23 London Irish
2006/7 Newcastle 21-26 London Irish
2007/8: Newcastle 8-13 London Irish
2008/9: Newcastle 8-24 London Irish
2009/10: Newcastle 12-12 London Irish
2010/11: Newcastle 12-46 London Irish


Not great reading that… I realised that we’d not done well against them, but that is pretty pathetic.

Currently 19-10 with 4 minutes to go, Newcastle played the last 20 minutes of the half with a man down.

Dreamt last night that Bristol missed out on promotion by losing to Wasps in a play-off at Twickenham. Win today for Falcons, loss for Wasps. Could the dream have been a premonition? Would the RFU change the promotion/relegation system at this late stage? Who'd bet against it.

Ah marra, that's pessimistic even by your standards! Look on the brightside, maybe rather than going to Bristol vs. Falcons games in the Championship, we can head down to the mem to see them in the Premiership!

Yeah that is a better way to look at it. Given that they want £25 to watch us play Esher, I reckon it'd be about £40 to watch us in (what used to be) our annual, fruitless relegation struggle. Good times!

On a serious point though, well done today. I've said it before and I'll say it to anyone who'll listen, we don't want Newcastle to go down if Union has any pretentions of being a 'national' sport. I suspect Wasps would be alright if they went down, Falcons I'm not so sure about. They could do worse than Bristol, who at least have a base of sufficient support to build on...

Cheers marra. I was worried about the Championship, but the commitment from the new owner Semore Kurdi has reassured me a little bit. Bringing in Gold, Wells and Ford has been an excellent move and I wonder if it would have made a difference if they had been brought in sooner. There seems to be a bit more of a feel good factor around the fans forums too, hopefully encourage a few more fans back through the gates!


£25 for Esher?!? Do they want anybody to see it? Surely it would be better to knock the price down a bit and get more fans through the gates?

Well played Falcons, it ain't over til its over.

I think you might be alright, bye bye Wasps

Yep, 25 nuggets for advance puchase, though only 15 on the day. Has Kurdi got some money to spend? I know Newcastle have let a fair few players go, with cash raised from that and a new owner you could a lot worse than raid a few Championship teams. There's quite a bit of young talent there, and a few seasoned pros who know the league and how it works would be a good investment as well.

Getting relegated isn't the end of the world. Ideally a team would want to come straight back up, but even if you do a Bristol and stay down it gives a club a chance to reorganise, on the business side if nothing else. Combined with the fact that's it's not a bad league (despite lack of support from the RFU) relegation could be what you make of it.

As a Bath fan thats good to know!

Hersh, bearing in mind where Bris are I choose my words carefully. Lets just say I've indulged in a little schadenfreud at our neighbours' expense this seaon. Reckon you'll be fine (obviously this season, but for the future as well) with your owner. Rugby sugar daddies are an interesting one. As businessmen you'd think they wont put up with too many bad seasons, yet unlike football investors they surely know they'll never make any money out of rugby, so must be investing purely out of passion for the club/game. I'd imagine this gives the club a little more wriggle room if things don't go right on the pitch.

Pulling it back to Newcastle, from what I've heard they're getting things right off field and are putting good plans in place for relegation (if it happens). Cuttting some deadwood/the wage bill and bringing in a new coaching team is a good start. I'd be interested to know if they've got any pairing up plans in place with other Premiership teams. Certainly Leeds have had a few Sale players this year, whilst Bristol have had a few Barf players. Speaking of which, Hersh, can we keep Josh Ovens please? I reckon you've got more than enough quality blindsides to let him go. I wont mention the number of our players a certain club has poached over the years......

You can have Vesty, if you want.

Cracking win, played really well in the 2nd, defence was superb.

Vickers was terrible, hardly nailed a jumper all game. If Irish had a game plan we'd have lost that one. Think Shortland touched the ball once all game from an intercept and nailed it!

Table looks much better tonight

Never understand why Newcastle fans criticise Gopperth's passing game - his ball for Wilson's try last week was world class.

SirBurger wrote:Never understand why Newcastle fans criticise Gopperth's passing game - his ball for Wilson's try last week was world class.

Because he simply doesnt do it enough. His first instinct just seems to be a big hoof!

Crackin second half performance. Good win.

Yet again it could be Gopperth keeping Falcons up, not that you'll hear much praise for him coming from the supporters.