REFRESHED TIESI ENJOYING SUMMER IN THE CITY
With a fine summer in full flow, Falcons centre Gonzalo Tiesi has been pleasantly surprised by the conditions the North East has been showing off in recent weeks, finding summer in Newcastle much more to his liking than the autumn and winter he joined the club during in 2013.
“This is a part of Newcastle I didn’t know about before being here, 25 degree heat and bright sunshine is great, it’s sometimes a bit difficult to get to sleep, but it gives a chance to get a barbecue on the go and enjoy the summer so I am just hoping it lasts!”
Tiesi is back on Tyneside after an extended break back home in Buenos Aires, where he had the opportunity to introduce his family to his new son, also called Gonzalo and recharge himself before heading back to Kingston Park for the new Aviva Premiership campaign.
“The club have been fantastic and allowed me to come back a little latter into the summer so my wife and I had the chance to take Gonzalo home to Argentina, to meet everybody over there. It’s a big family environment and they were all really excited to meet him, especially my younger sisters!
“It was great to see everyone and keeping up with my fitness work over there mean’s I’m at pretty much the same stage as the rest of the boys and ready for the next stage of pre-season.
“We are starting to build our game plan with some new ideas coming from the new coaching set up and we’re gradually building towards performing better as a group, stepping up from last year and hopefully winning more games and playing more attractive rugby.”
While there are another six weeks of training and friendlies until the season starts against Leicester at Welford Road on Sept 6th, the first competitive run out comes next weekend as the Falcons take on the Tigers, London Welsh and Sale Sharks in the Premiership Rugby 7s series.
Taking place at Darlington Mowden Park’s Northern Echo Arena, the event promises to be a fast paced evening and Tiesi has fond memories of his own 7s experiences from earlier in his career.
“I played in the World Sevens series for Argentina in 2005 in Wellington and Los Angeles where we made two finals and I also played in the Middlesex 7s for Quins when they won the Middlesex 7s which is the only time I’ve played it in England.”
“It’s a tough game, it’s almost a completely different sport when you compare it to the full 15 aside game but it is good fun, with a special atmosphere around the stadiums that makes the events a really good spectacle to watch.”
It is very physical sport and although it’s a while since I’ve played, I remember once you get into the third or fourth games, you are really starting to feel the effects on your body so I’ll be quite happy if I am just supporting some of the younger guys next weekend at Darlington!”
The Group D leg of the Premiership Rugby 7s kick off next Saturday in Darlington at 19:15 with six matches across the night.
Adult tickets and return coach travel from Kingston Park is available for just £15 and can be booked by clicking [here][1] or by calling 0871 2266060.
[1]: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/newcastle-falcons/default.aspx
