Newcastle Falcons Academy 5 - 50 Glasgow Warriors
Friendly match played at Percy Park on Monday, 21st November 2005


Dan Turner had an eventful night, being sin-binned then grabbing a try The Newcastle Falcons Development Team felt the force of a second half blitz on Monday night, as a vastly experienced and powerful Glasgow Warriors side ran in five tries in the last 40 minutes of their friendly match.
The Falcons had started well in a highly physical match, with the game tied 5-5 after half an hour, but with the Falcons ringing the changes, a Glasgow side largely made up of first team players showed its superior physicality.

Speaking afterwards, academy manager John Fletcher said: "That was a good lesson learnt for some of our young players against a very big Glasgow team, but despite the scoreline there were actually a lot of positives to take from the game.

"Once again Lee Dickson led the side extremely well from scrum half and drove the pace, while Ben Marshall, who we signed from Leeds in the summer, was outstanding at lock despite having played a full 80 minutes for Tynedale on Saturday.

"David Wilson scrummaged very well against some big lads out there in the first half, getting some real go-forward, and Ollie Phillips came on for the last 20 minutes in what was his first action after breaking his leg last season, showing some nice touches.

"Once we got in to the second half and had some of our younger players on, what was a very big Glasgow side really turned the screw and ran at us direct and in numbers, and with a few tackles being missed late on they really exploited their size advantage and dominated the latter stages."

The early signs for the Falcons had been promising, with Joe Shaw directing the traffic well at fly half with his mixture of short pops, wide passes and powerful running.

It was Glasgow who claimed the first try of the night when centre Graeme Morrison crossed in the right corner after a left wing line out was worked infield.

A hungry Falcons pack, however, spent a good ten minutes camped in the Glasgow 22 with penalty after penalty kicked in to touch as the Scots struggled to cope with Eni Gesinde at the back of the line out, and the rolling maul play of the front five.

Prop forward Wilson dived over and thought he had scored in the right corner after a quick tap penalty from Dickson, but for the fourth time in the half the referee would not allow the scrum half to take the tap until he had administered yet another warning to the visiting pack.

After the fourth such warning his patience finally snapped as lock Dan Turner was sin binned, and from the next rolling maul No.8 Greg Irvin steered the ship home with help from Matt Thompson, Grant Anderson and Marshall, among others.

Fullback Andrew Skeen's touchline conversion attempt rattled the post and bounced out from what was to be his side's last score of the night, despite remaining highly competitive for the remainder of the first half at least.

Scotland Sevens international wing Cameron Johnston tracked back well for the Falcons to make a try-saving tackle, but in the closing minutes a line out try from hooker Fergus Thompson on a peel to the back saw a second Glasgow try, followed seconds before the half time whistle by scrum half Graeme Beveridge for a 17-5 interval lead.

The second half saw the Falcons ring the changes and introduce the youngsters from a sizeable bench, including fit-again prop Jonny Williams and England Sevens wing Phillips.

With Glasgow having only five bench players to choose from on a night when their Under-21s side was playing another game elsewhere, the Scots rammed home their physical advantage.

Hooker Thompson went over down the blindside for his second try early on, followed by big lock Turner who barrelled over moments later.

Replacement Sam Pinder was next in the left corner after a break from the 22, while prop Lee Harrison got in on the act as he too smashed a path to the line from the same distance out.

The scoring was completed when Steve Duffy touched down under the posts, with the visitors securing an ultimately comfortable victory despite a close opening 40.

Report from Newcastle Falcons' official website

This article was posted on 21-Nov-2005, 23:03 by Hugh Barrow.