Let’s put on a show, Welch tells Falcons
AFTER winning ugly on the road again in the wind and the rain at Bedford last Saturday, flanker Will Welch is hoping Newcastle can put on a show for the home fans this weekend.
So far, the Falcons have beaten Cornish Pirates, their nearest rivals in the Championship table, London Scottish and Bedford away from home, scoring fewer than 20 points on each occasion but, on the 4G pitch at Kingston Park, they have racked up 40-point wins against Hartpury College and Jersey Reds.
With the calibre of talent available to Coventry, including former Falcon Ryan Burrows at No.8, and the close proximity of the sides to one another in the table – they are only four points apart – Welch knows the Falcons have got a battle on their hands to achieve their first objective and end this first block of league matches unbeaten.
“This is our last league game for a while until we play Ealing (on December 21, away) so it would be good to round off this block with a good win, especially with where they are,” he said ahead of the first league meeting between the sides since the 1996/97 campaign.
“They are a good outfit with some good players, so it’ll be a competitive fixture and we’ll have to make sure we put in a better performance than we have done in the past couple of weeks. To come through and beat them would be great.”
Newcastle trailed 3-0 against Bedford at half-time after a deluge of rain hit Goldington Road and never stopped, before finding a way to get over the line and win 11-6.
“It was a bit of an oldschool game, rolling around in the mud … down the hill,” said Welch, who came on in the second half.
“It was always going to be tough away from home at Bedford anyway, but the weather can be a bit of a leveller at times, too.
“At home we’ve been getting the five points, but away has been a bit closer. We’re still grinding out the wins though, which is the most important thing.”
Now a mere foot soldier after stepping aside to let Michael Young and George McGuigan take on the captaincy, Welch is no less committed to the cause.
He signed a new fouryear deal with the club in June, after relegation from the Premiership had been confirmed, and the 29-yearold insists he never had any thoughts about leaving his hometown club.
“I’ve always wanted to stay here, my family’s up here and I’ve been here my whole career and I didn’t think there was much point in moving elsewhere.”
Prop Logovi’i Mulipola makes his first appearance of the season as one of seven changes for Falcons; four to the pack and three to the backs.
Coventry have made one change to the side which beat Doncaster last week, with Senitiki Nayolo replacing Luke Wallace in the back row.