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'We can't hide behind anything - we've been relegated, and that's the reality'

By Online Editors
Gary Graham looks dejected after Newcastle's loss at Gloucester confirmed their 2018/19 Premiership relegation (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Gary Graham says Newcastle will trying to earn back the respect of their supporters when they host Bristol in Saturday’s season-ending Gallagher Premiership encounter.

The Kingston Park fixture sees the Falcons draw a line under a campaign where they were relegated from the top flight.

“We can’t hide behind anything – we’ve been relegated, and that’s the reality of it,” said Scottish international Graham. “But we’ve got one more game to show our supporters, our coaches and probably ourselves how much it means to be part of this team.”

Insisting it won’t be a care-free end-of-season mind-set, the back rower added: “It’s not a ‘nothing’ game for us, even though our league position has already been decided.

“We have not done ourselves justice this season. We have lost too many games and we’re treating Saturday just as seriously as we would do any other match.

https://twitter.com/FalconsRugby/status/1128919275824189440

“We’re not just going out there to chuck it around. We will be trying to impose our own game on Bristol and we’ve got work to do in showing our fans how much we care.”

 Asked what the difference was from the previous season, in which the Falcons reached the semi-finals and achieved a 20-year high in terms of league position, Graham said: “We’ve done a lot of soul searching and tried to put our finger on what has gone wrong this season. A big part of it is having that winning mentality. 

“Last season we won most of our first six or so games and we were top of the league or thereabouts, and this season we won one of our first six.

“It just meant we were around that bottom spot from pretty much the first couple of rounds, and we’ve not been able to get away from there.

“It is what it is and there’s no point in us making excuses – we’ve just got to go out now against Bristol and show people what it means to us to play for this club, and to try and right a few of the wrongs we’ve shown over the year.

“After that we’ve got to go down to the Championship and bounce straight back up, but that’s going to be a challenge in itself. The Championship is a very good league with some very good players and teams in it, and we’ll have to work hard to get back up.”

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Bull Shark 48 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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