Will Welch

Among all the mayhem at Kingston this season a young lad has come into his own in the 7 shirt. Will Welch has had a blinding season for Newcastle Falcons and in my opinion if he was a Leicester player (Which some day he more than likely will be) he'd be touring with England this summer. He's a player in the fetcher mold and incredibly strong over the ball and could be Englands long term 7.

He's done very well but i honestly think he'll stay with us and our back row could be seriously strong in a few years. He will improve no end under Deano and Wells...

Tui'fua is a monster, Mark Wilson (20) has had some scintilating games at 8 and 6 this season and we have others coming through...you may have seen myself and Cumbrian joking about Joe Robinson...but for a 18yo bs flanker at 6'4 and 17.6 stone he's a monster...

It's a odd scenario GF , once over we couldn't produce any quality forwards and it was all backs and now we just seem to produce back rowers.

Deano will bring him on and hopefully SL will take notice over it.

I think Tui'fua will end up at lock next season if he stays. Robinson should expect a lot of game time next season.

4.Tui'Fua
5.Hudson (If he's still here)
6.Robinson
7.Welch (c)
8.Wilson

Indeed...but if you look at whats potentially coming through the age groups....

Kirbrige - Winger / centre
Scott Wilson TH Prop...huge lad and England u18
George mcGuigan - irish u18 hooker another monster.
Robinson & Wilson - as mentioned
Joel Hodgson - I think he needs to move to SH for his size...then we would have a very creative 9...add in Catterick at 10....and that could be potentially sensational, with fitzy the powerhouse at 12.

Young Beumont at second row is a prospect and there are a few others aswell.

I think the future looks rosey...even if we do go down...we will come back way stronger...

In the next few years we "could" field a team like....

1 Golding
2 McGuigan
3 Scott Wilson
4 Hudson
5 Beaumont / Tui'Fua
6 Robinson
7 Welch
8 Tui'Fua / Wilson

9 Hodgson
10 Catterick
11 Kirbrige
12 Fitzy
13 ?
14 ?
15 ?

The only positions i would need to think about are 13,14,15....

Fingers crossed

Seymore is finally doing something with the club! So much more forward thinking than the prior management , Thompson was happy as long as Matt was playing hooker.

I can't understand why there chasing Michael Lipman though? Unless they are planning to bring a few more well known players in to get the crowd going again.

Got a decent looking team for next season

1.Jon Golding
2.Rob Vickers (Think Champ may be his level)
3.Euan Murrey
4.Tui'Fua
5.James Hudson
6.Joe Robinson
7.Will Welch
8.Mark Wilson

9.Rory Lawson/Joel Hodgson
10.Tom Catterick
11.Luke Fielden
12.James Fitzpatrick
13.Jamie Hueller
14.Ollie Phillips/Andrew Fenby
15.Zack Kilbrige

Good side that for the championship....We should be able to bounce back up.

All without Jimmy G. ;-)

On the forum there's a list of players we are in talks with , Rory Lawson is a corker of a buy if that comes off.

Sam Vesty
Richard Haughton
Oliver Tomazayk
Tane Tuipolatu
Andy Higgins
Alex Crockett
Scott Mcloed
Rory Lawson
Ben Woods
Michael Lipman
English Prop who is playing in France
Sean Tomes
Ollie Phillips
Marco Bortilami
Andrew Fenby

I wouldnt want many of that lot to be honest Driver....maybe Philips who i always thought was a good winger.

Bortolami? We have better here at the moment.

Lipman...nah Welch is better...and better than Woods.

Id like to see us develope what we have in the championship...then add some REAL quality to the positions required if we come straight back up.

And by god lets PLEASE get rid of Gopperth!!!!!

I wouldn't mind Vesty that much , could see him and Fitzy in the centre being a revelation.

We need a finisher and Phillips would run trys in for fun in the championship.

I guess..i just want to see us do it properly...

We've always signed players...but they're always average.

Now we have a chance to really get it right...develope the kids really well and keep it majoritly british based...then if promoted...we decide we need a full back, and prop or outside centre etc...then we look worldwide and get the best ....no half hearted journey men....

If he sticks around, Welch will be a club captain in the years to come. He's an excellent open-side, but he's big enough to do a decent job at blind-side too. I think there would be room for:

6. Welch
7. Lipman/ Woods (I've read that Woods is a distinct possibility)
8. Wilson/ Hogg

With guys like Joe Robison and Josh Beaumont learning from them.

Welch has done well in a side that was struggling badly for the first 6 months of the season. Hopefully he'll continue to develop and not find himself stuck behind a player like Lipman.

I'm assuming most of the players in that list would only join if you don't get relegated. In which case you may be better off going down, as not only would you avoid signing some pretty uninspiring players but you'd also probably get rid of your FH who never passes.

Do you really think Robinon will feature for the 1st team next season?

Dave

I have no doubt Joe Robinson will feature , incredibly physical but at the same time technically good. He's pretty much James Haskell with a brain.

A lot of them signings are uninspiring and i hope Kurdi and Deano get a sense at how peeved off fans have been with journey men coming in and out every season and let us play our kids a bit more and maybe make some well thought out signings like Exeter did.

Scott Mcleoad ...... Wow I'm inspired by that signing :-/

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing...

They are supposed to be announcing about nine more signings, but Richards doesn't start coaching until August. So are these his choices? If not, who is picking them?

I think they are Richards choices as he'll have a pretty good idea of who he wants to keep hold of and show the door. At Army navy game he was asked what he thought of Goppereth and he said 'He's not a 10 for me , expect him at 12 or 15'

My main concern Cumbrian is that with Ford off to Bath and Wells heading to Irish who will be coaching prior to Richards arriving?

I've read that Woods is a distinct possibility

I heard that was in advanced negociations with Tigers agreeing to let him out of his contract early as he wants 1st team rugby and they want to shave some wages off of the salary cap.

Wells heading to Irish

Where did you hear that?!? I'd be amazed if that was the case as I got the distinct impression he and Smith did not get on at all. Certainly the disjointed strategies from England clearly showed forwards and backs coaches who were not in agreement! Wells also knows Richards well and they have worked together before.

Was in Sundays Rugby Paper Sam.

Maybe they'll have most of the summer off? No doubt they'll have fitness trainers to go through various regimens. Perhaps we'll hear who Richards wants as his coaches in the next few weeks though?

I sort of like the idea of Gopperth at 15 to take the kicks, could work for me.

Was in Sundays Rugby Paper Sam

pfft they report all manner of crap at times. I'll believe it when LI announce it and I'll still be surprised then. To be honest I'll be amazed if Bob Casey isn't given the forwards coaching job at LI, he's earnt it.

I sort of like the idea of Gopperth at 15 to take the kicks, could work for me.

The Falcons backline looked better in the LV Cup game at WR when they went to 10.Hodgson, 12.Gopperth and 13.Fitzpatrick. Could see more of that with Catterick at 15 in the Championship.

I remember Goppereth playing 15 before and it worked a treat , ran some great lines off the centres.

Driver - RIP 606 wrote:I think they are Richards choices as he'll have a pretty good idea of who he wants to keep hold of and show the door. At Army navy game he was asked what he thought of Goppereth and he said 'He's not a 10 for me , expect him at 12 or 15'

My main concern Cumbrian is that with Ford off to Bath and Wells heading to Irish who will be coaching prior to Richards arriving?

If he plays 15 fine....it means he's NOT at feicin 10!!!!

I see we have signed Del Fava the Italian South African second row...

GeordieFalcon wrote:I see we have signed Del Fava the Italian South African second row...

Good, solid signing who will add a lot of experience to Newcastle's second row.

He's a good signing in the sense that he brings a lot of balance to our engine room , but you've got to ask yourself if they have del and Hudson why did they sign McLeod

Driver - RIP 606 wrote:All without Jimmy G. ;-)

On the forum there's a list of players we are in talks with , Rory Lawson is a corker of a buy if that comes off.

Sam Vesty
Richard Haughton
Oliver Tomazayk
Tane Tuipolatu
Andy Higgins
Alex Crockett
Scott Mcloed
Rory Lawson
Ben Woods
Michael Lipman
English Prop who is playing in France
Sean Tomes
Ollie Phillips
Marco Bortilami
Andrew Fenby

Any news on talks with Fenby?

Heard nothing on Fenby lately.

Rory Lawson confirmed this morning

Does anyone here use Falconsrugby.org?

Calls for Hudson to be dropped have my head spinning?

Yeah, I saw that. Some of the calls the lads are making on there are bizarre. Things like dropping Golding and Fitz all together

That stumped me , Golding by far our best front rower called to be dropped? Bizzare

Havent seen that...but dropping Fitzy? Really?