ATTACKING POTENTIAL READY TO BE HARNESSED
Falcons attack coach Dave Walder was a content figure at Kingston Park on Friday morning, following the Falcons pre season friendly against Aviron Bayonnais on Thursday evening.
The Falcons fell to a narrow 26 – 25 defeat in South West France but with the two teams being at differing stages of their pre season campaigns, results gave way to performance as a barometer of success with the Kingston Park back room happy with their teams work.
Walder said: “A lot of positives to take out of the game, from an attack point of view it was good to see a lot of the things that we have been working on over the summer come off when we executed them well and we scored four tries which was nice. There is still plenty to work on, but as a starting point, I’m pretty happy.”
Taking place in searing temperatures that were a far cry from the cooler climate of the North East, the match provided a fairly brutal re-introduction to matches for the players, but one that Walder believes will stand them in good stead.
“It was a good hit out for the lads, with the conditions being so hot it gave a lot of them a good indicator about how they stand in terms of their fitness levels. It also gave us the first chance to start seeing the game plan in action.”
Joining the backroom staff permanently over the summer, the former Fly Half has already been credited with bringing fresh thinking to attack by a number of his charges and the man himself is sure there is more to come from the 2014/2015 Falcons vintage.
“With it being our first match, we deliberately kept things simple and gave the players one or two things to work on in specific areas. Our big focus yesterday was on performance and we were quite clear with the boys that the result was of secondary importance, obviously it would have been nicer to win than lose but we’re very pleased with what was achieved.”
The Falcons next pre season action is in two weeks time against Rotherham Titans at Kingston Park and Walder is hopeful the performance against Bayonne will encourage fans to attend and get their first impressions of the new look game plan, team and of course pitch.”
“We’ll be going over the video’s in the next few days, there were one or two tries we left out there and we’ll be looking to kick on in our friendly against Rotherham. We’re trying to play an attacking and exciting brand of rugby this season and it would be good to show what we’re working on in a game environment, with a decent crowd.”
Tickets for the friendly against Rotherham, which will potentially be the first opportunity to see some of the new summer signings run out in a Falcons shirt, can be purchased by clicking [here][1] or by calling 0871 2266060
[1]: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/newcastle-falcons/details/event.aspx?itemref=2678
