Club History and 1997/8 Season Review.
Gosforth Football Club was founded in 1877 and over the years established itself as a top English rugby club, providing a great many players to the international scene . The first name change of the club occurred in 1990 when it became Newcastle Gosforth. An approach to Newcastle United and Sir John Hall in 1995 led to the club being taken under the wing of The Sporting Club and the appointment of Rob Andrew as Director of Rugby. With these changes came an eventual split with the Gosforth section of the club and the creation of the Newcastle Falcons based at Kingston Park.
Rob’s first objective was to gain promotion to the Premiership and for this he needed a lot of help. The promotion was only made possible by the recruitment of quality team players and his recruitment tactics raised a few hackles amongst the rugby establishment as he put together a star studded squad of internationals which were to become runners-up in the 2nd Division, sufficient to gain that much needed promotion to the First Division.
In August 1997, the Falcons travelled to Agen, France, for a pre-season match which was to be very beneficial to the team, not only securing a win, but a great team-bonding exercise after the summer break.
How the team would perform in the Premiership was not entirely clear, but the management team of Rob Andrew, Assistant Director and Captain, Dean Ryan and 1st Team Coach Steve Bates were hopeful of finishing within the top four in the table. At this time they knew little of what they were capable of achieving, which not only surprised themselves but also the Rugby world.
The first match of the Premiership was away to Bath, an ominous prospect at any stage of the season, but especially as the opening game of the season for the Premiership newcomers. A 28th minute replacement for Tony Underwood saw Stuart Legg make his Premiership winning try-scoring debut and become a permanent name on the team sheet. The leg injury that caused Tony Underwood to leave the field that day stayed with him throughout the season, although it didn’t prevent him from scoring his final try at the second meeting between the two clubs on the 11th May. With a 20-13 win secured against Bath, the confidence amongst the Falcons grew enormously and the belief that they could win more games like that surfaced.
The European Conference meant a six week break from the Allied Dunbar Premiership and saw the Falcons notch up easy wins over pool rivals, Edinburgh , Perpignan and Biarritz (1 win, 1 loss). This lead to the Quarter Finals and a 44-0 win over Castres in November at Kingston Park. Due to the loss at Biarritz, the semi-final was away at pre-season match hosts, Agen on Saturday 20 December and the Falcons returned to face a strong team and infront of a vocal French crowd the Falcons lost 12-9.
The return to the Premiership saw wins over Northampton, Sale, Division Two promotion rivals, Richmond, London Irish and Gloucester. A hectic Christmas schedule found the Falcons at Bristol on 27th December, winning by a huge 50-8 margin and then three days later, away again, but this time at Leicester. Infront of an expectant capacity crowd, the Falcons proved all their critics wrong again (including a certain SKY presenter!), beating the Tigers 25-19 in a tense and exciting match. The belief that the Falcons could win the Premiership at their first attempt was now emerging within the club.
The New Year saw the Falcons enter the 4th round of the Tetley’s Bitter Cup, with a home win over Exeter. The 5th Round was away against Worcester in a 10-0, but unimpressive display from the Falcons.
A trip to Franklins Gardens, the home of Northampton, in the Premiership was followed just three weeks later by a return visit, but this time in the Tetley’s Bitter Cup. The first visit proved lucky for the Falcons and a 21-17 win was secured, however, the next visit, the Saints revenged their loss with a 17-7 winning display and the Falcons were out of the cup double chase.
With both the European Conference and Tetley’s Bitter Cup out of the way and all the players back from international duties, the Falcons were able to concentrate on their Premiership aspiration. Despite a loss at in form Richmond in March (which ended the Falcons 12 match winning run), they managed to bounce back and produce a complete rugby performance in what many considered to be the match of the season, a 30-25 win over title rivals, Saracens at Kingston Park. The match ended with Newcastle fighting Saracens off on their own line. Could this have been a sign of how the rest of the season would be? But then again, we did win the match and the Premiership!
The visit to Kingston Park by Wasps was of great interest to many supporters to see how the two teams would react, Wasps having lost Rob Andrew, Dean Ryan, Steve Bates, Nick Popplewell and Graham Childs to the Falcons. The Falcons produced another win, through not by as large a margin as expected and went on to Gloucester the next weekend.
Gloucester had proved to be a major stumbling block for many of the great sides over the years and this year was to be no exception. The season saw the fall of Bath, Leicester, Northampton and even Saracens in front of the baying Shed, now it was Newcastle’s turn to try their luck. In the end, luck played a major part in the result as a last minute drop-goal from Mark Mapletoft somehow missed and the Falcons won 29-27.
End of the season tiredness was beginning to set in amongst the team and London proved to be a stumbling block once again for the club. Followed their loss against Richmond in March, the Falcons fell again against Saracens infront of a record club crowd of nearly 20,000 at Vicarage Road and then three days later against Wasps at Loftus Road.
The team came back to the North East, re-grouped and proved that they could still bounce back by beating Bristol 43-18 just four days later.
As the season progressed and as the Falcons winning performances attracted even more attention, the support for the team grew and grew and the final two home games of the season were moved from Kingston Park to the 11,500 all-seater Gateshead International Stadium. This proved to be a highly popular move with announcements over the tannoy encouraging more vocal support from the supporters. This was not a problem although Tiff had her French oral (GCSE exam!) the next day. The players enjoyed the atmosphere created by the big stadium and the vocal sell-out crowd. We were seated in the uncovered stand with a lot of the away supporters which didn’t stop us shouting FALCONS to their roars of TIGERS. We were surprised we got out without being lynched!
Wins over Leicester and Bath at the Stadium meant that the title chase with Saracens went right up until the last game of the season for the Falcons, which was away at NEC Harlequins. Despite their loss in the Cup Final the previous day, hundreds of Newcastle United supporters joined the Falcons supporters and got behind the team to ensure that at least one (too small!) piece of silverware came North- the Allied Dunbar Premiership trophy.
As the Premiership Champions, the last match of the 1997/8 season was against a select World XV at Twickenham in the Sanyo Cup. Despite the team being 31-19 behind at half time and a powerful start to the second half by the World XV, the Falcons found their form and came back into the game and eventually won 45-41. Stuart Barnes even backed the team to a win, but all hopes of a Barnes turn around were shattered when he quoted " That will teach a thirty five year old to make a break" (Rob). A larger piece of silverware came back to the North East this time. The win only proved what we had all been saying for a long time, that the Falcons really are the best team in the world. Even a Sarries supporter at the Twickenham bar admitted we were the better team.
1987/88 Season - Division Two, Position 10th
1988/89 Season - Division Two, Position 10th
1998/90 Season - Division Two, Position 12th
1990/91 Season - Division Two, Position 6th
1991/92 Season - Division Two, Position 4th
1992/93 Season - Division Two, Position 1st (Promoted)
1993/94 Season - Division One, Position 10th (Religated)
1994/95 Season - Division Two, Position 3rd
1995/96 Season - Division Two, Position 8th
Rob Andrew, Dean Ryan and Steve Bates arrive.
1996/97 Season - Division Two Runners-up (Promoted)
Signings John Bentley, Doddie Weir, Alan Tait, Tony
Underwood, Tim Stimpson, Pat Lam, Gary Armstrong,
Peter Walton, Dean Ryan, Garath Archer, George
Graham, Ross Nesdale, Nick Popplewell and Va’aiga
Tuigamala helped them to Division One Promotion.
1997/98 Season - Allied Dunbar Premiership Champions.
1998/99 Season - Runners Up Tetley Bitter Cup.
Who would have believed five years ago, that three of these men would be playing on the same team now?
This information appears courtesy of Newcastle Falcons RFC.
