Bath Game The Ideal Tonic For Frustrated Falcons
Although frustrated at his team’s most recent result, Bobby Vickers says the Falcons remain positive they can the rest of the season count, starting with this Friday’s game against Bath.
“Over the course of this season, we’ve been playing well and there are a lot of positives to take away from that so there is a lot more to come from us in these last few games.”
A disappointing outcome against Exeter on Saturday ended the Falcons’ hopes of progressing further in the European Challenge Cup, a competition in which the club had enjoyed a strong inaugural run.
“Generally we did well in the first stage of the European competition and it was incredibly pleasing to get into the quarter finals, although of course we were hoping to go further.
“Having watched Saturday’s game back we’re still frustrated; in the first half there were lots of opportunities, in general we had good field position and lots of possession but neither as forwards or backs did we convert that properly and I think that for all the possession we had, we let them off the hook.
“During that first half Exeter scored two opportunistic tries while we spent a lot of time in their 22 but came away with only six points. We need to be a lot more ruthless when we get in those areas and demand more of each other, to see where we’re at and make every effort to get those points.
“Sometimes we just need to find that extra couple of per cent to be able to win a collision or run a support line or whatever it may be to get over the line when we’re up there. Because generally in the first half it felt like we had good field position and a lot of good ball in that field position, we were just unable to convert it.”
However, although the European dream may well be over there is still over a month of domestic rugby to be played, with Bath, Gloucester, Sale and Quins all lying in wait for the Falcons before the end of the season.
“There are still a number of games left so the challenge for us now is to pick up those points. We know we’re capable of it and our performances throughout this season have shown that, so now it’s a question of converting those performances, and that exciting rugby into wins.”
With their next Aviva Premiership game scheduled for this weekend there will be little time for the Falcons to lick their wounds from the weekend before they get back into action, but Vickers believes he and his team mates are well prepared.
“Bath is probably the ideal tonic for Exeter actually because they’re a big pack as well with lively outstanding runners at the back, so as a team that’s very similar to Exeter we’re going up against like for like. We know as a team what we can do to play against that so we have to turn up and do that.
“The challenge for us on Friday will be to take on their set piece because that’s one of the big things for Bath, and when we defend we just have to be aware that we have some fantastic play makers and fantastic runners of the ball. So in terms of the next team to play we should be completely prepared for it.”
And with the game kicking off at 7.45pm this Friday, Vickers believes there’s no better time for the Falcons to play.
“Friday night at Kingston Park is brilliant. The fans are always fantastic, the pitch is great as well and we always love playing at home so the boys are very much looking forward to getting back out there.”
Tickets for Friday night’s game against Bath are still available to buy [online][1], in person from the Kingston Park Stadium Box Office, or by calling the Falcons’ 24 hour hotline on 0871 226 6060 starting from just £15 for adults and £7.50 for juniors.
[1]: http://www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk/Pages/Tickets/info
