Falcons can kick on now Hammersley
SIMON Hammersley believes Newcastle Falcons can use their new-found momentum to end their season in style as he savours the “strange” experience of the club’s revival.
Targeting European Challenge Cup glory, the Falcons are also well placed to nab a Premiership playoff spot.
Dean Richards’ side has been one of the surprise packages of the season but has been steadily building in recent years – despite making few major changes to personnel.
Last season the Falcons ended the Premiership campaign in eighth place, their highest league finish in 11 years. Now they are looking to blow that out of the water and secure a place in next season’s European Champions Cup.
Even Hammersley, who made his first-team debut in 2014, has been caught off-guard by the transformation – but gave his view on what he thinks has brought about the change in results.
“It’s strange that you can have a very similar group of players and go from finishing 11th in the Premiership to potentially finishing third with four games to go,” he said.
“I think it’s just that we’ve grown together. Your Welches (Will Welch), your Willises (Craig Willis), Cal Green, who have played most of those four years and have put in great performances, and I think there are a lot of players who have played a lot and got used to each other and it’s just building momentum.
“When we were lower down, we couldn’t build – when you’re at the bottom, you lose a close game, you feel down, whereas this, we’re maybe grinding out a win and it keeps building.”
Hammersley credited the club’s staff both on and off the pitch and believes the Falcons can use last weekend’s victory as a catalyst to push them on for the rest of the season.
“We have been doing well in the Premiership and we had the disappointing result in the LV (Anglo-Welsh Cup) at Exeter so this came at an ideal time to help us refocus,” he said of Saturday’s win over Northampton.
“Hopefully we can now kick on with the four Premiership games still to go and the European stuff.
“Maybe we can use this as a bit of a springboard to keep the run going and hopefully get to the playoffs, get to the semis in Europe and see how we do.”