'It's odd, the biggest cheer was when Ford did a spiral bomb'
Newcastle are currently on a five-game losing run in the Gallagher Premiership but the director of rugby Dean Richards has insisted he won’t curb his team’s have-a-go style in order to give them a better chance of winning games. The Falcons are without a top-flight win since their November 6 15-14 Sandy Park success away to Exeter and they are now preparing to host the Chiefs this Sunday in the return fixture at Kingston Park.
In the meantime, the eleventh-place Newcastle have drawn with fellow Premiership strugglers Worcester and then lost to London Irish, Leicester, Northampton, Gloucester and Bristol, a run of defeats in which they have conceded 187 points compared to scoring just 72. It’s a sequence that suggests a more pragmatic approach might better suit Richards’ team but he was adamant heading into this weekend that Falcons’ style of play won’t be altered on his watch.
“If we were in May and we hadn’t won I’d be starting to panic,” he shrugged about the current barren Newcastle run in the Premiership. “Our side should be competitive every week and sometimes things conspire against you in terms of your preparation and sometimes it affects your delivery.
“But on the whole, we have been competitive over the last ten years and we will be going forward and a large part of that is homegrown talent coming through, having that feeling that Kingston Park is our home ground and we fight right down to the last little bit.”
What is the Newcastle style, then? “Tries being scored both by forwards and backs alike, defensively breaking teams down. It’s no different really from others.
“We are not exactly down the Leicester and Saracens route whereby you exit off your nine up to the opposition ten-metre line. There is a little bit more flair there or willingness to play a bit but at the same time, they are very, very pragmatic in their approach to the game. Sometimes we do (play pragmatically).
“But the reason we like playing in front of the crowd at Kingston Park is they like us to have a go and they would sooner see us go down fighting that way than probably kicking the leather off the ball on a week by week basis. It is odd isn’t it, you go to Welford Road and the biggest cheer of the day was when George Ford did a spiral bomb and we don’t quite want to get to that level yet.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Andy Goode cant kick to 12
161 Go to commentsDoxed himself. Great work Johnny. You are well suited to the Saders
1 Go to comments_Best game players _
1 Go to commentsWho's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
76 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
33 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
33 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
161 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
76 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
33 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to comments