Newcastle Falcons - 2019 to 2020 Championship - Closed

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Manager: Dean Richards
Head Coach: Dave Walder
Forwards Coach: Micky Ward
Defence Coach: Nick Easter
Attack Coach: Dave Walder
Lineout Coach: Scott Macleod
Skills Coach: Mark Laycock

Current Squad:
Forwards
Props:
LH - Sam Lockwood, Adam Brocklebank, Trevor Davison,
Conrad Cade (Senior Academy), Phil Brantingham (Senior Academy)
TH - Rodney Ah You, Logo Mulipola, Mark Tampin, Mike Daniels,
Oscar Caudle  TH(Senior Academy & Tynedale)

Hookers: Kyle Cooper, George McGuigan, Jamie Blamire, Charlie Maddison

Second Rows: Sean Robinson, Darren Barry, Toby Salmon, Greg Peterson,
Will Montgomery (Senior Academy), Freddie Lockwood (Senior Academy), Bailey Ransom (Senior Academy)

Back Row:
6&7's: Mark Wilson, Will Welch, Gary Graham, Jon Hardie,
Guy Graham (Senior Academy), Rob Farrar (Senior Academy), Josh Basham (Senior Academy), Harry Hill (Senior Academy),
8: Philip van der Walt, Nemani Negusa, Calum Chick,
Tom Marshall (Senior Academy), Charlie Richards (Senior Academy & Tynedale)

Backs
SH's: Micky Young, Sam Stuart
Callum Pascoe (Senior Academy & Tynedale), Cameron Nordi Kelemeti (Senior Academy), James Elliott (Senior Academy)

Fh's: Joel Hodgson, Toby Flood, Brett Connon, Tim Swiel, Joel Matavesi
Will Haydon Wood (Senior Academy & Tynedale)

Centres: Matias Orlandi, Gareth Owen, Ben Stevenson, George Wacokecoke,
Charlie Wilson (Senior Academy - At Durham UNi)), Chidera Obonna (Senior Academy)

Wing: Sinoti Sinoti , Adam Radwan, Cooper Vuna
Morgan Passman (Senior Academy),

FB's: Alex Tait, Tom Arscott,

Players unconfirmed:
Seb De Chaves - Only has a one year deal
Jon Welsh - Injuries mean he hasnt played for nearly 2 years.
Connor Collett - has he signed permanently for Doncaster

LondonTiger wrote:Still pretty average though.

Tends to be our issue really. We pack the squad out with average sub-standard AP players and then complain we can't get good players in because we have don't have enough money.

The recruitment policy at Falcons has baffled me for the last 2 or 3 years.

Toby Flood signs on for another 2 years.

Cant help thinking this is in a player coaching role. Mentor to Connon and Haydon Wood. Apparently he played very well at 12 on Sunday.

He was rumoured to be on a hefty wage (300k?) so I hope a cheaper deal. Odd decision by the club if it's a full contract though, we need better.

Agree...if hes dropped the wage and joined up as a "player-coach" with reduced playing time then fine...but if hes fighting for the 10 spot over Connon etc...then im not happy,

I see Takulua is pretty much confirmed.

Nice to see the club informing the fans once again whats going on.

Youngster George Wacokecoke has signed a new 2 year deal. Now thats a great bit of news.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Youngster George Wacokecoke has signed a new 2 year deal. Now thats a great bit of news.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. My favourite name in rugby.

Narrowly ousted Lovejoy Chawatama as I find Wacokocoke rolls of the tongue better.

It is a great name.

The thing is...hes been one of our best players this season. Happy with this re-signing

I see theres some anger with the falcons fans today..that the Takalua move has only been annnounced when hes been put on the teamsheet for today.

And the fact that Kibirige is scoring for wasps despite being ignored by Dean for the Falcons.

GeordieFalcon wrote:I see theres some anger with the falcons fans today..that the Takalua move has only been annnounced when hes been put on the teamsheet for today.

And the fact that Kibirige is scoring for wasps despite being ignored by Dean for the Falcons.  

Will you be able to same about Hodge soon? Chiefs are being linked.

Yeah mate...his name is fully being brought up. Some angry falcons fans.

Id heard someone down South were looking...is it Exeter?
Is there any links?

Can't remember where I read it now but it also suggested Chiefs were likely to lose Sam Hill.

Well, ive been critical but i have to say we're putting out a consistent settled side now and we have won 22 games on the trot.

Connon at 12 and flood at 12 is looking very good.

40 - 0 v Bedford is a decent run out

Congratulations on being champions.

I suspect this one has some legs before being finalised GF.

I see Ealing have now said they are considering legal actions if we are promoted ....dear lord

Do they honestly think they were going to catch us...

Sounds like they are trying it on to make a quick buck tbh. I think it's only a few more games and we're mathematically up anyway??

I see the Falcons released a statement this afternoon saying what they thought of Ealing's threat of legal action.

They have thoroughly shamed them now, so it will be interesting to see if they do actually persist with this misguided action.

Falcons have put out a very good statement in response..from Deano.

Yeah Big Gee....it was a very well worded response.

Makes them look like utter bar stewards.

I suspect Ealing are trying to get their foot in the door before the increasingly inevitable ring fencing occurs. They will contest that their game Vs Falcons would have allowed them to potentially narrow the gap etc etc blah blah blah.

Looks like we're going up.

Congratulations Falcons, good to see you back in the big time. Just got to wait out the virus now.

The most subdued promotion party ever!

The thing with the Championship is it's just becoming a waste of time now. Whoever goes down, they just spend a year out and then walks back in. The sooner some sort of ring fencing comes in the better I think.

Yeah i agree...its a bit of a farce.

We were by FAR the worst side in the prem last season...we lose some of our better players...and yet we are STILL light years ahead of the championship sides.

How many clubs are left in the championship who havent opted out of promotion already? Only a handful is it? The main argument obviously against ringfencing sit atop the pyramid.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:The thing with the Championship is it's just becoming a waste of time now. Whoever goes down, they just spend a year out and then walks back in. The sooner some sort of ring fencing comes in the better I think.

Given the massive disparity in terms of funding that isn't surprising. The threat of relegation keeps teams playing for something though and the Championship churns out players despite what the RFU think as well as being a very useful testing ground for young talent.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:The thing with the Championship is it's just becoming a waste of time now. Whoever goes down, they just spend a year out and then walks back in. The sooner some sort of ring fencing comes in the better I think.

Given the massive disparity in terms of funding that isn't surprising. The threat of relegation keeps teams playing for something though and the Championship churns out players despite what the RFU think as well as being a very useful testing ground for young talent.

But that isnt likely to improve...given the RFU are actually cutting it.

If the the RFU are going to plough money in to it then fair enough but at the moment it needs to be fixed as its a pointless exercise.

I do see the arguemernts against ring fencing mind. Teams wont play theyre first choice teams every game, so crowds will not see top matches every game etc...

But what is the answer?

Sarries being relegated mid-season provided a perfect example of why ring fencing long term would make the league worse. Things got far less interesting with teams picking significantly stronger sides for home games than away.

I could get on-board with ring fencing for a limited time period (say 3 to 5 years) whilst the RFU put money into the Championship to build it up. There are sides in the league with impressive academy structures given they don't have the luxury of the Professional Game Agreement, catchment areas and soon to be CVC investment.

I'd support 2 up 2 down before ring fencing long term though. As a Tigers fan I almost wish we had been relegated same as Saints, Quins and Sarries before. There are obvious short term financial advantages of dragging through playing pish rugby and not getting relegated. I see little advantage long term for the league or teams with awful form hanging around like limpets though. I struggle to think that Tigers back play would be as shocking as it still is had we been relegated, forced to re haul the playing and coaching earlier.

Sadly im not sure we have changed / overhauled anything in terms of style or playing standards.....

Time will tell, but this could have been a missed opertunity...

The only way to make the Championship competitive is to have a salary cap same as the Premiership - the parachute money which currently skews the league massively in favour of the relegated side could instead be given to the promoted side to set them up in the Premiership.
Player contracts could be written as "in the event of relegation your wages drop from "X to Y" if you stay or you become a free agent and can leave the club".
You can't ringfence simply because there's no club in the Championship that would be good enough/rich enough to take that 14th spot - Ealing might have the money but does London really need another Premiership club?

Ideally it would be Ealing it would be one of the Yorkshire clubs but that's just to the situation we're in, Donny are only mid table with Rotherham and Leeds relegated. Ampthill are another club growing with some funding and I suspect if the other clubs were funded properly they'd grow. Cornish Pirates are always good, would provide Exeter with a proper derby game and everyone's new favourite away day. Coventry have shot up the league this season with new coaches and a little quality recruitment in the backrow.

Seems wrong to stomp in the futures of all these clubs just because of greed. That's all that's stopping it. Prem teams seem happy to pull the ladder up and the RFU bigwigs don't want to spend money they want the bonuses and they think it's easier and cheaper for the Prem clubs to run the A league as the second tier competition. Wash their hands of the whole affair and concentrate on the international cash cow games where they can all get drunk for free.

Personally I'd like to see the TV coverage for the Championship sold to terrestrial TV. The team's given a fair and long term funding model and their being an annual play off game Vs Championship top team Vs Premier League bottom team with the Championship club always the home team and always allowed to keep the ticket sales so even if they don't go up there's a bonus to winning the league.

Cornish Pirates have a great set-up that has grown quickly. Their building of an impressive academy without the PRL funding shareholder clubs get is brilliant.

Nottingham, Coventry, Jersey and Bedford also have good standalone set-ups. Donny as well have improved their infrastructure a lot.

Even Hartpury who have struggled since promotion in 16/17 I think have done some brilliant work to get to where they are with a naturally high turnover of playing staff.

Given how young rugby is as a professional sport, with the Championship being even younger I think there are teams in the league that have achieved brilliant things for them and their community.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Sadly im not sure we have changed / overhauled anything in terms of style or playing standards.....

Time will tell, but this could have been a missed opertunity...

Do you feel that Falcons would be more likely to improve without the threat of relegation though?

Personally I think the league would get worse as a whole. I think a select few sides would improve their European performance by virtue of being able to rest players more but as a whole I think the Premiership would rapidly become tepid and boring without relegation/promotion.

From Tigers perspective for instance I think we would win a decent number of home games but only ever be competitive on the road when sides rest their starting XV prior to European games. I would then foresee that routine becoming a stagnant norm very quickly.

I'm not a betting man but if I were to place a rare bet it would on a ringfenced Prem ending up with extra playoffs within a few years to try to inject more excitement into a bored league. 1st and 2nd go straight to a home semi, then 3rd vs 6th and 4th vs 5th in quarterfinals to decide who makes the semis. Especially with CVCs influence I could see that sort of situation arising.

The system does need significant improvement but for me that needs to come in more investment in lower leagues rather than cutting funding and pulling up the drawbridge.

Well, something needs to be done.

At present, (and with the championship funding now slashed )the current format is a joke.

The relgated team goes down...has a year smashing everyone, then gets promoted.

Most teams should be able to rebuild...but Falcons slashed their funding even further and dont look to me to have made any improvements.

Apparently they have already made a number of signings in readiness for being promoted...it will be interesting to see who they are.

Falcons apparently talking to Wigglesworth about coming in as Takulua's replacement. Purely in terms of staying up next season he would be an excellent signing for your squad.

He's still in talks about returning to Sale as well though I believe. Diamond's squads have usually had a small number of backs and prioritised spending in the forwards so it would surprise me in a way if Wigglesworth were brought in alongside Faf de Klerk. They are spending to the cap this season though and Wigglesworth would be a huge step up from Will Cliff as back up. Gus Warr (Scotland u20s) is a talented 9 as well who they won't want to lose to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

I'd certainly take Wigglesworth and he'd be a significant improvement on Young.

There's not too much quality in this Falcons squad bar the backrow so it really needs some investment.

I see the talk is that this group wanting to buy Newcastle United are wanting the falcons aswell and have a sporting group like John Hall was trying to do years ago

GeordieFalcon wrote:I see the talk is that this group wanting to buy Newcastle United are wanting the falcons aswell and have a sporting group like John Hall was trying to do years ago  

Be a good time to take over. There's a couple of big name Sarries players available and with a lot of clubs putting off making signings Falcons could take advantage. The current Falcons budget is miles under the wage cap as well.

Some big name players available from French clubs who are also stalling on contract signings. Newcastle United have allegedly been given £200m to spend. If they acquire Falcons and throw them £10m to cover wages for the season then Falcons could do very well.

Yeah it would be..

John Wells annouced as going to Italy to be defence coach for Rugby Colorno.

Rugby club partner of Tigers. Based just outside Parma. Their women's team is supposed to be quite good as well according to Google so he could have two first teams to coach. Sounds a bit like early part retirement.

Yes it does Sam, a couple of years in the sun..nice.

Yeah must be terrible for him. Well he'll need to be careful when I was in Italy the weight gain was pretty high, food and drink are a bit too good.

Ha ha i can imagine its a nightmare Sam.

Most falcons seem to agree that Waldouck might the one to take over.
He's been assisting Wells all season as defence coach. Maybe they knew John was leaving before the start of the season and Dom has shown up well in coaching?

GeordieFalcon wrote:Ha ha i can imagine its a nightmare Sam.

Most falcons seem to agree that Waldouck might the one to take over.
He's been assisting Wells all season as defence coach. Maybe they knew John was leaving before the start of the season and Dom has shown up well in coaching?

You jest Geordie but I ended up staying in a hotel that had an in house bakery. They served glazed pastries and cake alongside breakfast. You don't think you want cake for breakfast but suddenly the first meal of day ends up being four courses long. Thayt before I'd even got outside. Half a stone in a week.

Dom Waldouck always came across as an intelligent player so he would be one you'd expect to go into coaching. Well you'd hope it's that and not that he's just cheaper than retaining Wells. It does leave Waldouck, McLeod, Ward and Walder on the staff who have only coached at Falcons as a professional club. It's the trap Tigers fell into, not a lot of fresh ideas coming in.

I agree, when I seen this news I was hoping that we'd be recruiting externally to get some fresh input.

Maybe its Waldoucks new input that has made our defence so good this season (ignoring the level of oposition in the championship. )

Id happily get shot of Macleod..the prancing pony. How much impact is ward having in the scrums etc now. Maybe its time we found a new scrum coach / forwards coach now aswell.

Sgt..

At the moment, what areas are you happy with in the XV.

1
2 Mcguigan / Blamire
3
4 Robinson
5
6 Wilson
7 Welch / Graham
8 De Walt

9
10 (Connon - Young and inexperienced but quality)
11
12 Williams
13 Wakeocoke
14 Radwan
15

Theres too many key positions missing

Wigglesworth and Burns are available at the minute. Get those two in move Connon to 15 and that backline looks alright. Picking up a half decent winger shouldn't be too difficult.

Up front is tougher. Ah You is a decent tighthead though you really need two. Worrying you can't back a loosehead to start you need two of those as well.

Theres Josh Hodge at 15 Sam, but he played one game last season, the Doddie Wier game v Melrose and he may be off to Exeter anyway.

Id rather go with Connon at 10...give him a chance. He's got the quality.

I forgot about AH You actually. He's been very good this season when not injured.

We have Cooper Vuna still on the books who can do a job for the moment, and young Morgan Passman...whos a big hope...think Ben Cohen type winger. But he's very young.