Newcastle Falcons

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Newcastle Falcons
Full name	Newcastle Falcons
Founded	1877
Union	Rugby Football Union
Location	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Ground(s)	Kingston Park
Capacity	10,200
Chairman	Dave Thompson
League	Guinness Premiership
2007-08	11th
Home colours		Away colours
Official website
www.newcastle-falcons.co.uk

The Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team currently playing in the Guinness Premiership. The team plays at Kingston Park in Newcastle upon Tyne.

[edit] 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 will 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.

[edit] Club honours

• Premiership 1997/98
• Division Two 1992/93
• National Cup 1976, 1977, 2001, 2004

[edit] 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.

[edit] Current squad

Nat. Position Player HK Andy Long HK Matt Thompson HK Rob Vickers PR Jon Golding PR Carl Hayman PR Joe McDonnell PR Micky Ward PR Johnny Williams PR Dave Wilson LK Andy Perry LK Mark Sorenson LK Jason Oakes LK Andy Buist LK Sean Tomes LK Tim Swinson FL Ross Beattie FL Eni Gesinde FL Geoff Parling FL Ed Williamson FL Ben Woods FL Brent Wilson

Nat. Position Player N8 Russell Winter N8 Phil Dowson N8 Peter Browne SH Hall Charlton SH Lee Dickson SH James Grindal SH Micky Young FH Jonny Wilkinson FH Toby Flood FH Steve Jones CE Alex Tait CE Mathew Tait CE Jamie Noon CE Tom Dillon WG Tim Visser WG John Rudd WG Tom May WG James Hoyle WG Ollie Phillips FB Joe Shaw FB Matthew Burke

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[edit] Current England Elite squad

• Jamie Noon
• Jonny Wilkinson
• Mathew Tait
• Toby Flood

[edit] Other Internationally capped players

• Matthew Burke
• Andy Long
• Carl Hayman
• Joe McDonnell
• Ross Beattie

[edit] 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 Charvis

[edit] External links

• Official Picture Site
• Official Site