Flood out to fire shots, not take them
NOW 33, Toby Flood’s appetite for the game shows no sign of diminishing but the 60-cap fly-half would prefer it if his main contribution to the Newcastle cause was creating tries not stopping them.
In homage to former Falcons team-mate Jonny Wilkinson, Flood has made 104 tackles in his ten league starts – more than any other player in his position.
In the 20-17 home defeat to Gloucester last week, he put his head in where it hurts 19 times; only fellow Falcon Gary Graham and Leicester No.8 Sione Kalamafoni made more across the Premiership in R10.
“I’d rather be doing 19 kicks or throwing 19 lefthand passes,” Flood said. “I think we’re finding ourselves having to front up in defence a bit at the moment and you just try and put your body about to give the team energy whenever and wherever you can.
“It is kind of frustrating for a 10 because you want to keep yourself as fresh as possible but it is important to give back in defensive situations for your team.”
While holding onto the ball longer than any other team in the Premiership, Newcastle have been blunt in attack. They are the joint lowest try scorers in the league with 19 and it is going to be difficult to win games when you’re averaging only 12.6 points.
Given that Newcastle have the Premiership’s topmetre maker in full-back Simon Hammersley, and Vereniki Goneva and Sinoti Sinoti on the wings, Flood admits it’s a head scratcher why the Falcons are not finding their way over the whitewash.
“When you’ve got guys like that on the edge, and we’re not scoring, it shows that we’re not quite linking play together, from 9, 10, 12 and 13,” he said.
“I don’t think that has been down to one specific thing, it has been down to a turnover at a lineout or losing the ball two or three phases in with a dropped pass or something.
“The frustrating thing is we’re creating opportunities but we’re not finishing them. When we do stress teams, we haven’t been as clinical as other teams.
“Take the Gloucester game as a snap shot, we made a couple of errors coming out of our half and they scored 14 points from them, while they made four or five errors coming out of their half, through kicks out on the full or dropped balls, and they go unpunished. Our conversion levels have to be higher.”
With a rarefied atmosphere expected at a three-quarters full Ashton Gate and Bristol willing to run the ball from anywhere, Newcastle could be in for a lung-burner today.
Flood said: “Bristol like to play high-tempo and keep the ball in play a long time, so we’ll have to make sure we bring the oxygen masks!
“We’ve got to manage their energy levels and the crowd’s energy levels and the excitement that comes around Christmas. But we feel we’ve got a lot to offer in terms of excitement, too.”
Captain Will Welch makes a welcome return to the back row for Newcastle, with Sami Mavinga in at loose-head and George McGuigan in at hooker. The two additions to Newcastle’s back line are scrum-half Michael Young and winger Adam Radwan.
Sam Lockwood, Mark Wilson and Alex Tait miss the game through injury.
Bristol boss Pat Lam makes three changes from the side that suffered defeat to Sale. Tom Pincus makes his first Premiership start in place of Alapati Leiua (ankle), while Dan Thomas and Jordan Crane come into the back row.