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Newcastle Falcons suffer nightmare journey home from South Africa
Newcastle Falcons bid to end their ten game losing run this season has become even tougher after a nightmare journey back from the European Challenge Cup 35-13 loss to the Lions in Johannesburg.
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The Falcons players had their flight cancelled and needed to take three planes to eventually arrive back today via Cape Town which has forced a rescheduling of their training for the Premiership clash with Bristol on Friday night at Kingston Park.
Bristol are currently eighth in the table with Newcastle eight points adrift at the bottom.
Alex Codling, the head coach, was already facing a tough job in his first season in charge and admitted: “It’s the toughest run I have ever had as a coach and we all feel the pain.
“The team’s flight was cancelled on Sunday and they have had to now get three flights back; from Johannesburg to Cape Town; Cape Town to Heathrow and Heathrow to Newcastle and it is just another challenge and the boys have adapted.
“Our team manager has done a brilliant job and they have just arrived back after travelling for about 32 hours. It does pose huge challenges around travel, logistics and how you manage bodies with a smaller squad.
“It will have an impact (on training) and we are just finalising matters and things were put in place once we knew the flight was cancelled. We will know more about that in the morning after the boys have had a good night’s sleep.
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“We will manage that over the next 24 hours and 17 of the squad stayed here and a number of teams did the same including Bristol who we play on Friday night.
Building for Bristol. 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/PmjWYLhRpK
— Newcastle Falcons (@FalconsRugby) December 19, 2023
“What has happened with the flights has reinforced the decision (to leave players at home) and if we had all been out in South Africa it would have made things very difficult.
“Hopefully, Guy Pepper is available this week and Mateo Carreras is not far away from returning potentially this week. The boys are in good spirits and are desperate to win in front of a big crowd on Friday night. It is massive game for us and we came close to beating Montpellier at home coming back from 17-0 down and we just have to keep working hard.
“What do I want for Christmas? Just a win would be nice.”
???? ??!
Under the lights 💡 on Friday night.@BristolBears 🐻 are coming to Toon.#TrueNorth #BePartOfIt
ADVERTISEMENT— Newcastle Falcons (@FalconsRugby) December 18, 2023
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
41 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
41 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
41 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
39 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
41 Go to comments