Rugby
Falcons and Saracens
15 February 2008
Newcastle Falcons welcome back all ten of their England and Saxons players this Sunday, as they host Saracens in the Guinness Premiership at Kingston Park (kick-off 3pm). Six Nations stars Jonny Wilkinson, Toby Flood, Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait all return to the Falcons team, as well as England Saxons players Phil Dowson, Ben Woods, Lee Dickson, Andy Long, John Rudd and Jon Golding. All but one of Sunday’s starting XV is English, ten of whom have come through the Falcons academy, while 15 of the match-day 22 are products of the Newcastle youth system. Lock Mark Sorenson breaks his run of having started every game this season as he attends his brother’s wedding in New Zealand, paving the way for Andy Buist to return from shoulder surgery with his Falcons team hoping for a repeat of their dramatic 22-19 victory over Saracens when the two teams met at Vicarage Road back in late December.
Despite having beaten Saracens 22-19 when the sides met in Watford on December 30, director of rugby John Fletcher insisted nothing would be taken for granted in Sunday’s rematch.
“Saracens are in the top reaches of the Guinness Premiership and they are an excellent all-round side, so we know it will be a tough game and we’ve prepared accordingly,” he said. “People say Sarries underestimated us just after Christmas when we won down there, but I don’t believe that for one moment. It’s an excuse that coaches trot out from time to time after a defeat – I know because I’ve done it myself, but I don’t think that was the case down at Vicarage Road having spoken to their guys afterwards. I think we just showed up on the day and played an excellent game of rugby. We deserved to win that one and we did, but every game is a new beginning and it won’t mean anything this weekend because we both start the afternoon at 0-0. If we play well then we have the quality to get the result, if we don’t then we won’t.”
Asked what he expects from a Sarries side currently placed fourth in the Guinness Premiership table, Fletcher said: “Saracens are a proper rugby team – big pack, good ball carriers, ambition, the ability to move the ball around and they have one of the best players in the Guinness Premiership in Glen Jackson. We’re aware of what they’re about, obviously we have watched a lot of footage of all their games, but we’ll just concentrate on ourselves and try to impose our own patterns on to the play rather than worry about the opposition too much. We will go hard at them, we realise how important this game is and all the ingredients are in place for what should be a cracking 80 minutes of rugby.”
With Mark Sorenson’s absence in the second row Andy Buist gets his chance to slot back in to the side after five months out injured, with Fletcher singing the praises of one of the club’s top young prospects.
“Andy is a fine talent, someone with huge potential, and had it not been for his injury early in the season I’m convinced he would’ve been in or around the England Saxons squad,” he said. “What he needs to do now is stay fit and put together a run of games. He started that earlier this month with a few matches on loan at Blaydon to get his fitness levels back up, and I’m looking forward to seeing him play because he really does offer us a lot in the pack.”
In what is his side’s first club outing for three weeks, Fletcher said: “We gave the players a week totally away from rugby after the Leicester game, just to recharge their batteries.
“Having said that, ten of our starting XV and two of our replacements have been playing international rugby over the past fortnight, so there shouldn’t be any danger of getting caught cold.”
With one of that number being England centre Jamie Noon, who suffered multiple cuts in beating Italy last weekend, Fletcher said: “He looks like Frankenstein at the moment with all the stitches in his forehead, but for him that’s just an industrial injury, like an office worker getting a paper cut. It’s just a flesh wound and it won’t affect him for Sunday, but with the way he plays the game those sorts of scrapes are inevitable. In true Noony fashion as he was leaving the field for treatment the play came back in his direction, and he diverted his path to whack the Italian guy carrying the ball. That’s the sort of dedication he has, and I was jumping up and down yelling at the TV watching him because I thought he had an excellent game.”
While Sunday’s encounter with Saracens provides the focal point of Fletcher’s week, the former England A centre revealed that he will be making his own playing comeback 24 hours earlier as he turns out for his local club, saying: “It’s the big game of the weekend, Northumberland Second Teams County Cup quarter-final for Tynedale Veterans against Rockliff in Whitley Bay! It’s away from home, which is always tough. We have a training session tonight, although to be fair if most of the lads bend down to tie their bootlaces it’ll take them a week to recover! The game will be won or lost at inside centre, which coincidentally is where I’m playing – main decision-maker, big ball-carrier and pretty much the brains of the whole operation! No, but in all seriousness it’s a lot of fun to just turn out for my local club when I get the odd chance once or twice a year, and it’s what rugby should be all about. I think we have that ethos here at the Falcons, and even in the professional environment we have guys representing their local team in the Guinness Premiership every weekend and enjoying the game for what it is. I hope rugby never loses that spirit, even at the elite level.”
Less than 100 seats are left for Sunday’s Falcons v Saracens clash, while standing tickets still remain on sale. To book call 0871 226 60 60, or pop to Kingston Park.
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