Everything about Newcastle Falcons totally explained
Dave Thompson
| Interim head coach = Steve Bates
| league =
Guinness Premiership
| season =
2007-08
| position = 11th
| url = www.newcastle-falcons.co.uk
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The
Newcastle Falcons is a
rugby union team currently playing in the
Guinness Premiership. The team plays at
Kingston Park in
Newcastle upon Tyne.
History
The original Gosforth Football Club was founded in
1877 by a group of Old Boys of
Durham School, in whose colours of green and white hoops the club played until the mid-1990s. In 1955, the club moved to a new ground at North Road which was to be its home until 1990. During that time and particularly in the late 1970s Gosforth enjoyed tremendous success both on and off the field winning the
John Player Cup in seasons 1975/76 and 76/77.
Gosforth supplied innumerable players to all counties over the years, to the North of England sides and to the full international and British Lions teams. These include Arthur Smith, Ray Mcloughlin, Malcolm Young,
Roger Uttley, Peter Dixon, Duncan Madsen, Dave Robinson, Richard Breakey, Jim Pollock and Colin White.
In
1990 the club name was changed to
Newcastle Gosforth and they moved to Kingston Park. Gosforth Rugby Club continued as an amateur side working in partnership with
Northumbria University.
The name Newcastle Falcons and the current black-and-white colours were adopted for the 1996/97 season, after local businessman
Sir John Hall had taken control and attempted to create a sporting club in
Newcastle upon Tyne that would emulate the success of
Barcelona. The four teams that made up the sporting club were the
football team, nicknamed the
Magpies, the
Newcastle Eagles basketball team, the Newcastle Wasps (later Riverkings, Jokers, Vipers etc.) ice hockey team and the Newcastle Falcons rugby union team.
Newcastle was the first fully “professional” club in the world. In 1995, Sir John Hall installed former Wasps’ captain, Rob Andrew, as his salaried Director of Rugby and saw the club earn promotion from the national Second Division to the Premiership. The following season, Newcastle became English champions at their first attempt.
Hall sold the Falcons for a 'nominal' sum in 1999. Since then Newcastle won two
Powergen Cups in 2001 and 2004.
In August 2005 Falcons toured Japan pre-season. They beat
NEC Green Rockets easily but lost to a fired-up
Toyota Verblitz.
In August 2006
Rob Andrew left the Falcons to be in overall charge of the England set-up ahead of the 2007 World Cup in a wide-ranging role that encompasses all aspects of the professional representative game in England. John Fletcher succeeded Rob Andrew as director of rugby at Newcastle Falcons with immediate effect. Fletcher, a former England A centre, has been the club's academy boss and he'll head up a team of Peter Walton, Steve Black and Bob Morton with ex-Falcons prop Ian Peel taking over as acting academy manager.
On March 11th 2008, Fletcher and Walton left the club, officially by mutual consent, following Black who had left a couple of months earlier. Steve Bates took over as interim Director of Rugby until the summer of 2008 when the post will be reviewed. Dave Thompson stated 9 years of underachievement as reason for the departure of John Flecher and Peter Walton.
Having said this, Bates guided the Falcons to a record-equalling run of seven consecutive Premiership defeats by April 2008 with home games against Leicester Tigers and London Wasps plus a season-concluding away trip to Worcester Warriors yet to come. Defeat in the ECC semi-final against Worcester Warriors on 25th April 2008 may well have sounded the death knell for Steve Bates' tenure as interim DoR. However, on Tuesday 20th May 2008 Steve Bates was confirmed as Newcatle's Director of Rugby on a full-time basis.
Club honours
Current standings
European Challenge Cup
Newcastle Falcons finished top of Pool 3 which inclueded
Connacht Rugby,
CA Brive and
CR El Salvador. In the quarter final they beat
Castres Olympique 40-13, setting up a semi-final against
Worcester Warriors which they lost 31-16.
EDF Energy Cup
Newcastle Falcons finished second in their group which included
Gloucester Rugby,
London Wasps and Welsh side
Newport Gwent Dragons.
Current squad
Current England Elite squad
Jamie Noon
Jonny Wilkinson
Mathew Tait
Toby Flood
Other Internationally capped players
Matthew Burke
Andy Long
Carl Hayman
Joe McDonnell
Ross Beattie
Notable former International players
Owen Finegan
Dean Ryan
Garath Archer
Tony Underwood
Rob Andrew
John Bentley
Tim Stimpson
Colin White
Malcolm Young
Michael Stephenson
Dave Walder
Nick Popplewell
Ross Nesdale
Va'aiga Tuigamala
Semo Sititi
Pat Lam
Gary Armstrong
George Graham
Peter Walton
Doddie Weir
John Leslie
Alan Tait
Stuart Grimes
Andrew Mower
Steve Brotherstone
Richard Breakey
Jim Pollock
Duncan Madsen
Arthur Smith
Craig Hamilton
Epi Taione
Colin CharvisFurther Information
Get more info on 'Newcastle Falcons'.
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