NEWCASTLE Falcons are counting the cost of Saturday’s defeat at London Irish, with Jeremy Manning suffering a suspected broken arm.
The Kiwi full-back did not emerge for the second half of his side’s latest Aviva Premiership loss, with head coach Alan Tait saying: “Jeremy got a bang on his arm, and unfortunately it’s the same one that he broke a couple of years ago.”
On an afternoon of frustration it was not only Manning’s injury that had Tait cursing, as his side contrived to undo all of their good work in the opening half by virtually imploding thereafter. Trailing 10-7 at the break despite dominating, they had only a Jimmy Gopperth try to show for it as the fly-half darted over from first-receiver at a five-metre scrum.
Patient periods of possession and a much more lively strike threat had offered the visitors considerable hope.
But when home stand-off Ryan Lamb ghosted through to copy Gopperth’s try-scoring exploits and add to his earlier penalty, it was a taste of things to come.
Even more infuriating for Tait was the knock-on which led to the scrum for Lamb’s try – Micky Young guilty on this occasion as he fumbled from a turnover.
The England Saxons international has already proclaimed his intention to leave Kingston Park at the end of the season, and at times it seemed as if his mind was elsewhere as a string of further handling offences and over-eager quick taps hindered his team’s chances.
The scrum-half was far from the only offender as a largely one-sided second half saw Clarke Dermody and Seilala Mapusua barge their way over – Gcobani Bobo adding a late consolation score.
“When you set off on the road and come to a place like London Irish, you’ve got to stick to a game-plan,” said Tait. “I’m not saying the lads should play like robots and just do what the coaches say, but we’d worked all week on a game-plan and executed it pretty well for the first 40 minutes.
“Systems were in place, we scored a good try and the one we conceded was just an individual bit of brilliance from Ryan Lamb.
“At half-time I was reasonably happy, and the boys were pumped-up in the changing room, but when the game re-started players started doing things on their own.
“Nobody else knew what they were doing – it wasn’t what we said we were going to do, and it just put the whole team under greater and greater pressure. Until these lads learn to stay within the system it’s going to be tough.
“Obviously if they see something on by all means have a crack, but if you just ignore the structure completely then this is going to keep on happening.”
Defeats for relegation rivals Sale Sharks and Leeds Carnegie at least meant no great worsening of the Falcons’ survival prospects at second-bottom in the Aviva Premiership table.
But with Exeter Chiefs in town on Friday, Tait must now pick up his troops for an almighty Kingston Park clash.
“We have to take a leaf out of London Irish’s book, because they came into Saturday’s game in a really bad run of form and turned it around with a win,” said the Scot. “They had suffered a lot of bad defeats on the bounce.
“I said to the boys after the final whistle that they need to get themselves back up for the Exeter game on Friday.”
Having beaten the Chiefs 17-3 in Cup action just eight days ago, Tait added: “We’ve played them more than any side this season, four times already, and we want another crack at them.
“We know what they are about, we’re expecting another battle and we have to match them with the power and intensity that they have.
“Exeter will bring what they always have done, they will be just as tough as the other four times we’ve played them – it’s going to be a huge night for us.”
Scorers: Newcastle Falcons – Tries: Gopperth, Bobo. Conversions: Gopperth 2.
London Irish – Tries: Lamb, Dermody, Mapusua. Conversions: Lamb. Penalties: Lamb, Malone.
NEWCASTLE FALCONS: J Manning (G Bobo, 40), L Fielden, L Eves, T Tu’ipulotu (R Vickerman, 67), A Tait, J Gopperth, M Young (H Charlton, 65); J Golding (G Shiells, 53), M Thompson (R Vickers, 49), J Hall (K Brookes, 49), J Hudson (captain), A van der Heijden (M Wilson, 60), T Swinson (F Levi, 65), W Welch, A Hogg.
LONDON IRISH: T Ojo, A Thompstone, E Seveali’I (D Bowden, 74), S Mapusua (captain), S Tagicakibau, R Lamb (C Malone, 60), P Hodgson (D Allinson, 19); C Dermody (D Murphy, 49), J Buckland, (R Herring, 78), P Ion (W Johnson, 64), N Kennedy, K Low (G Johnson, 74), K Roche (S Armitage, 60), J Gibson, G Stowers.
Sin-bin: Steffon Armitage (68).
Referee: Martin Fox.
Attendance: 6,806.
