Alan Tait saving Falcons in Amlin Challenge Cup
Newcastle Falcons are on tenterhooks to sustain their pompous home record against French team, when Montpellier will be playing with the home team tomorrow night. Montpellier is in a high flying mode and will be looking forward to give out in their best
to break the record set by Newcastle Falcons, for not losing against any French side at home. Newcastle just lost once in past 13 years to a French side at Kingston Park and they claimed around 19 victories against all of them, which include the strongest
of teams like Perpignan and Toulouse.
Brive happens to be the only French club that visited Kingston Park and left with a victory of 10 – 9. They almost sneaked the victory in last stages of the game and concluded with a last minute try, two years ago. Falcons head coach, Alan Tait believes
admits the fact that they are about to face tall and strong team and they have to win in any case to make it to the quarter finals of Amlin Challenge Cup. If Falcons win over the Pool 3 leaders then we will be witnessing an interesting finale coming weekend.
The head coach Alan Tait said, “Mathematically, there is still a possibility we can qualify. We are going all out on Friday; there is no doubt about it.” All they need is double five pointers on the pitch and also get through with some tries and make sure
they win both the coming games. He honestly added, “It's difficult in the Premiership because obviously the defences are very strong, so fingers crossed we get some quick ball and run some of the plays we've been doing in training.”
Amlin Cup is posing new challenges for the struggling teams but Tait believes that home game will help them survive through this phase. Newcastle has a good chance of demonstrating a good game and retrieving results from it. Scot, the Montpellier’s coach
said that last time he witnessed few Falcon players in France, they were unprofessional and amateurs. He specifically named the match between Gregor Townsend and Brive in this matter. He said, “Gregor couldn’t believe how they carried on, whereas us on the
outside, we thought they were the ultimate rugby players. They were still acting like amateurs, but nowadays they have a much more professional culture and they’re travelling a lot better than they used to.”
Scot further stressed on the importance of this match and the danger they would be facing that day. He believes that Montpellier has to pierce through the face of English defense and upset their rhythm before they start picking up pace and turn the night
into a miserable memory for the French side.
So far Tait has made eight changes to Falcons for their second last game of Amlin Challenge Cup group phase. Euan Murray is still not registered for this competition so his spot will be taken by tight head Kieran Brookes and Filipo Levi will be playing at
Tim Swinson’s position in second row, for the same reason. The prop Jon Golding will be making a welcome start after three months, due to a successful performance against Sale Sharks in 19-19 draw match.
Rugby star, fly Half Jimmy Gopperth will not be resting and will play instead. His father has travelled all the way from New Zealand to watch him in action. Alan Tait made five other changes in the back line and have thrown scrum half Chris Pilgrim back
to in the line as he is fit to play again.
Alex Tait will be substituting Jeremy Manning and will start as a full back with Michael Tait and Luke Eves. With these three around, it will be a youthful midfield partnership. The last change Alan Tait made was bringing Danny Williams on the right wing
and adding Alex Gray and Joe Graham the bench.
He is keen to bring out the best from the team on the last stages of this season of Amlin Cup. Newcastle Falcons didn’t give an out class performance this season and they want to end it on a positive note. Falcons stand on third position in Pool 3 with eight
points from two wins out of four matches, whereas Montpellier stands at the top with 13 points from 3 massive wins out of four matches.
Tags: