Ealing Trailfinders 38 Newcastle Falcons 17.

[jimKRFC]

Not a great start to pre-season for Newcs!

Not a lot of positives according to the Newcs message board. Good news for Tigers perhaps?

[Scrumhead]

Whichever way you look at it, it doesn’t bode well for Newcastle.

Looking at the lineups on the official site, it wasn’t too far off their preferred side: https://www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk/news ... falcons-17

Wilson, Welch and Flood add a lot more experience and ability, but let’s not forget that Ealing haven’t played a game in 8mths either.

[Mellsblue]

Ealing have been back in training longer than Newcastle and been training with Sarries but, yeah, based on this, Newcastle don’t look too clever.

[Tigersman]

Falcons was winning till they did 12 changes at once pretty much.

[fivepointer]

Ealing have assembled a decent squad. They've got a few ex-Prem players and plenty of experience. This win will only boost their claims to be in the Premiership. I dont think Falcons have done much transfer wise the last few months, so will be relying on the squad that they went with last season. They're in for a tough time in the Premiership.

The line ups -

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Tom Arscott, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Luther Burrell, 12 Joel Matavesi, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Joel Hodgson, 9 Michael Young (captain); 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 George McGuigan, 3 Mark Tampin, 4 Greg Peterson, 5 Marco Fuser, 6 Sean Robinson, 7 Connor Collett, 8 Gary Graham.

Replacements: 16 Darren Barry, 17 Kyle Cooper, 18 Logovi’i Mulipola, 19 Rob Farrar, 20 Will Welch, 21 Matthew Ward, 22 Toby Flood, 23 Ben Stevenson, 2 Charlie Maddison, 3 Mike Daniels, 8 Tom Marshall, 9 Sam Stuart, 12 Pete Lucock, 15 Brett Connon.


Ealing Trailfinders: 15 David Johnston, 14 Angus Kernohan, 13 Max Bodilly, 12 Pat Howard, 11 Dean Hammond, 10 Craig Willis, 9 Craig Hampson; 1 James Gibbons, 2 Shaun Malton, 3 Lewis Thiede, 4 Barney Maddison, 5 Harry Casson, 6 Kieran Murphy, 7 Guy Thompson, 8 Rayn Smid (captain).

Replacements: Will Davis, Michael Van Vuuren, George Davis, Simon Linsell, Dave McKern, Simon Uzokwe, Abongile Nonkontwana, Shane Buckley, Jordan Burns, Steven Shingler, Fraser Strachan, James Cordy Redden.

[Digby]

It might not be a great start to pre-season for Newcastle, but it's pre-season.

[Raggs]

Falcons was winning till they did 12 changes at once pretty much.

That seems pretty significant in fairness.

[Stom]

Who are the names I don't know in the Falcons team? Anyone know?

Tampin, Peterson and Robinson.

The rest, Radwan apart, are pretty much the epitome of journeymen. Not much quality there. I'd actually say the Ealing players are potential upgrades at 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13. Which is saying something.

[fivepointer]

Tampin is a decent Championship prop, probably no more. Peterson is a USA international. Robinson is actually a very good prem player.

On paper, i'd say the Newcastle squad is stronger. They play again at the weekend, so maybe they can turn the tables.

[16th man]

It might not be a great start to pre-season for Newcastle, but it's pre-season.

Can not this this enough.

[Scrumhead]

Perhaps if it were 6wks before their first Premiership game, but they play Bath at The Rec in less than 2wks.

The mass second half substitution definitely seems to have affected the result, but still ... I’m concerned for them.

[jimKRFC]

The rest, Radwan apart, are pretty much the epitome of journeymen. Not much quality there. I'd actually say the Ealing players are potential upgrades at 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13. Which is saying something.

After watching Malton and Thiede at Bristol I'd add them to the improvements on News as well - both did really well for us and were a loss for us.

[Scrumhead]

As an aside, it looks like Kyle Cooper is ‘doing a Rob Vickers’ and switching from Hooker to Loosehead. Interesting move relatively late in his career.

[Galfon]

Who are the names I don't know in the Falcons team? Anyone know?

Tampin, Peterson and Robinson.

The rest, Radwan apart, are pretty much the epitome of journeymen. Not much quality there. I'd actually say the Ealing players are potential upgrades at 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13. Which is saying something.

Was looking for Uzokwe - only a few opportunities last year for Falcons, and see he was on the bench for Ealing.

[jimKRFC]

Playing the re-match at the moment at Kingston Park: 0-0 after 20 minutes, Ealing seem more likely to score (from the twitter feed).

https://twitter.com/FalconsRugby

[fivepointer]

7-5 to Falcons at h/t.

[Mellsblue]

Newcastle 21 v 12 Ealing.
I really hope they’re competitive this year. Two pre-season matches against already battle hardened teams. It could be a tough start but they could take advantage of being fresher, you’d assume, towards the end of the season.

[fivepointer]

They've got Bath away, Sale home and Wasps away to start with.
Difficult games, though Bath and Wasps will be weakened by international callups.
They are in for a tough time, i suspect.

[Puja]

They've got Bath away, Sale home and Wasps away to start with.
Difficult games, though Bath and Wasps will be weakened by international callups.
They are in for a tough time, i suspect.

Gods, I hope so. With Leicester getting no pre-season due to COVID, being hard hit by internationals, and losing half their coaching staff shortly before the season, we need Newcastle to be rubbish in order to prevent me having a sudden interest in ringfencing.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Highlights:


Even if you don’t enjoy the rugby, you’ll love the soundtrack.

[16th man]

I think we can safely say the rest of the league's defence coaches are going to be concerned at that.

[Digby]

I actually checked settings on that to see if the speed was x0.75 for whatever reason, that was not impressive. Still, some major fitness gains can be found one would suppose