Rugby
Falcon’s put best foot forward
5 July 2007
Newcastle Falcons' pre-season preparations took a kick in the right direction on Thursday, with the squad completing a session at Newcastle United Football Club.
The Falcons contingent is currently in the third one-week block of its pre-season schedule, having returned in late May for the first week of a staggered program.
After this week the squad will have another fortnight's rest before resuming full-time training on July 23, but after three weeks of pre-pre-season under their belts before that date, director of rugby John Fletcher believes his charges will have their best foot forward as the new campaign gets underway.
"With such a long gap this year we decided to reassess our pre-season schedule and came up with the three blocks of one-week training, each with two or three rest weeks in between," said Fletcher.
"We are now in the last of those three blocks, and after a fortnight's rest we will be back in every day from July 23. The lads are already looking very sharp, and we believe this approach during the long summer break will have the players fresh and ready to go when the season starts, but in great physical condition at the same time."
Revealing the content of the pre-pre-season, Fletcher said: "We've basically worked on the principle of one day's conditioning work followed by one day's skills training, which gives us a good balance and also keeps everyone interested rather than being stuck in the gym every day.
"As well as using the gym and the fields at Kingston Park we have trained at Cramlington High School on the basketball courts, and today we had a good session at Newcastle United on their synthetic pitch while our own new training HQ is completed at the old Newcastle Blue Star ground.
"The quality of the facilities at Blue Star will make a big difference to us as we train during the season, but for the moment we have been making use of the fantastic sporting resources elsewhere in the region."
New signing Steve Jones, the ex-Border Reivers fly half, was among the faces on show at Newcastle United in Thursday's session, which incorporated handling and movement prior to the Friday gym training which brings the week's block to a close.
Another keen participant was scrum half Hall Charlton, hoping to put a stop-start year behind him.
"It's a fresh start for me," said the 27-year-old, whose first team appearances last season were restricted to just two starts and five bench outings.
"I got injured early in the season and never really recovered from that, then in my comeback game in Italy I was knocked unconscious after only 30 seconds!
"It's at times like that you think someone up there is trying to tell you something, but I've worked hard over the summer and I'm in great shape right now relishing the chance to fight for a place.
"We have such a lot of talent at scrum half with Lee Dickson, James Grindal and myself going for the shirt, but there are top quality youngsters coming through like the Scotland Under-19s player Ross Samson and Micky Young from the England academy. It's the same right across the field really, and the signs look good for this season."
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