Newcastle aim for the top following the Keegan way
The Falcons could soar to the summit tonight having been revived by Walder’s attacking game
The chill winds that habitually cut to the bone at Newcastle’s Kingston Park may never ease but at least the shivering fans have been warmed by the brand of rugby being played out on the field, a balmy sporting front that may even see the Falcons go top of the Aviva Premiership table tonight.
There are various caveats to that momentous possibility – be it Saracens winning at Worcester or Newcastle slipping up against London Irish – but the very fact that such permutations are in the north-eastern air is heartening. And helping direct operations is a man weaned on the all-out attacking instincts of one-time messiah of the Geordie nation, Kevin Keegan, a philosophy that chimes with that of Falcons’ new head coach, Dave Walder, born and bred in the area and a former Magpies season-ticket holder.
“We like to be entertained up here, to win too, and if we can do both, then so much the better,” said the former England, Falcons and Wasps fly-half, promoted into the role this season after three seasons as backs coach. “It’s the Keegan way, to wear hearts on sleeves and to express yourself.”
Tonight’s fixture against the Exiles would have once been billed as an early-season relegation indicator, a bottom-ofthe-table scuffle for precious points in the inevitable eightmonth battle for survival. Newcastle have lived in the nether regions for the past 10 years. They were champions at the outset of professionalism in the mid-nineties, bankrolled by Sir John Hall, but those initial dreams of a sporting empire being built in the North-east turned to dust.
Newcastle have been on their uppers for too long, 11th four times in a decade, and relegated in 2012. But the good business practice of owner Semore Kurdi, who took over six years ago, and the shrewd, bit-by-bit management of Dean Richards, has brought a slow upturn on and off the field.
The methodology of both men has been to lay foundations. Now for the furnishings and eyecatching exterior. There has been a shift to a more expansive approach, mirrored in Walder’s elevation as well as in the signings of high-quality backs such as former France centre Maxime Mermoz, former England fly-half Toby Flood and Pro12-winning Canadian centre/wing DTH van der Merwe, who scored on his debut last weekend in that switchback, and significant, 33-32 win over Bath at the Rec.
“We are well aware that we have done nothing yet bar having had a decent start with two away wins,” said Walder. “We know we can get better. Both Maxime and Toby have been injured, while DTH has only just had his first game. But this is the way we want to go, to attack. It would be daft to imagine you can do that all the time, and all the other principles apply first and foremost – win good ball, set-piece solid, defend hard. But our recruitment shows the direction in which we want to travel. You just wouldn’t be able to recruit the players we have if all you were going to offer them is a kick-and-chase game.
“The artificial pitch helps. The lads love it. The game is quicker and you know what you are going to get. When I played, the pitch was a bog, not even a leveller for us as the home side as it was unplayable.”
It may be romantic guff that makes us wish Newcastle well, the club scrapping against the odds to make it happen for the local community but all power to those sort of instincts. The North-east does play home to many proud, long-standing amateur teams and the Falcons are very much part of that scene, with ties to 60 junior sides. But it has been a drawn-out tussle to endure. That fighting spirit is deeply embedded at the club as was evidenced in the manner in which they came off the ropes against Bath. Having raced to a 19-0 lead, Bath then scored 32 unanswered points. Most teams would have folded at that juncture, demoralised by such an about-turn. The Falcons did not and they won it at the death, their first victory at Bath in eight years.
“I’m a new boy but I could see the desire to fight,” said Van der Merwe, a prolific try-scorer for Pro12 champions Glasgow Warriors and Scarlets. “That’s how it has been with me with Canada, the underdog trying their best.”
Van der Merwe, 31, actually took himself off to Texas three years ago to train as a firefighter with his post-rugby life in mind. There was a time when those skills would have been to the fore at Newcastle with their succession of relegation scrapes while his late teen upbringing in Saskatchewan to where the South African family moved when Van der Merwe was 17, is the ideal climatic preparation for life in the North-east.
The motley crew go again against London Irish, with everyone mindful that this is no more than a beginning.
“It is obvious that we have achieved nothing yet,” admitted Walder. “It’s a good start, no more than that. But, equally, it does show what we are capable of. There is more to come.”