After suffering a 35-13 defeat to the Emirates Lions, Newcastle Falcons returned from South Africa on the back of their 10th consecutive loss in all competitions. Despite the hopes of a clean slate in their EPCR Challenge Cup campaign, the Falcons were felled by a form-finding Montpellier at Kingston Park, and could not contain the Lions down in Johannesburg.
However, Falcons Head Coach Alex Codling is not dwelling on the past results. Newcastle were facing an uphill battle from the start of the season, due to their reduced financial backing when compared to their competitive clubs. Codling recognises this, and rolls with the punches as Falcons gear up for their return to Premiership action. This Friday, Newcastle welcome eighth-placed Bristol Bears up to the North East, who have also suffered a loss in recent European ventures.
After riding the highs of their dramatic win over Lyon, Bristol were put to the sword by Bordeax-Begles in last weekend’s meeting. The French side ran out a resounding 36-17 win, setting up the stage for both Bristol and Newcastle’s push to return to winning ways, as they meet under the Friday night lights. Bristol fielded a rather inexperienced side in Bordeaux, and drew backlash from onlookers as their Champions Cup defeat was far from competitive.
However, Codling recognises the challenges which the Bears faced, after enduring the tough travel requirements with alongside his reduced squad. Whilst the Challenge Cup competition is an exciting opportunity for the Falcons players to test themselves against international opponents, the logistical elements can make the arduous journeys even that more difficult.
“It obviously makes it challenging. You have to plan as a coach for those three weeks, rather than just the one week. I said that’s why in terms of selection, if you look at the three weeks and the Montpellier game, we couldn’t really include anyone in the Montpellier who’s going to the Lions, because our game was on a Sunday.
“And we’d have had to book new flights at our own expense to go on the Monday. So, these are things that people that understand me, wouldn’t appreciate away from the club. So, it’s not just as easy in the sense of those three games.
“There’s a lot more to it, but you are right, it does, on one sense it’s (Challenge Cup) a huge opportunity and a positive, but another sense it does pose us challenges around travel logistics, how you manage physical bodies, particularly as I said, with a smaller squad. But we’ve hopefully got the balance right and as I said the boys are raring to go for Friday.”
Despite the results, the opportunities have certainly presented themselves for Newcastle’s high flying Falcons to impress the England selectors. Steve Borthwick has had a keen eye on the North East in his stint in charge, yet no representatives of the ‘Toon’ made the grade for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. However, this has only motivated the England hopefuls to push on for selection, with the 2024 Six Nations creeping ever closer as we approach the new year. Speaking on his top England bolters, Codling said;
“We’ve got a lot of real quality English players here that got opportunities to play for their country. So if you look at someone like Jamie, Jamie’s attitude has been fantastic. I think he’s playing really well. He’s training really well. He’s in a really good place. And again, that shows you the measure of the person having been narrowly missing out on the World Cup, he has come back with a brilliant attitude, and I can only speak in glowing terms around him.
“Adam Radwan, scored some great tries working incredibly hard loves his club. Guy Pepper is playing really well we missed him. You’d have seen him going in against Exeter, we were up by two scores early on, was having a huge influence in the game. Took a knock, went off, and we weren’t quite the same team without him. So again, there’s a young man who’s already having a massive impact on us as a team, and someone who for me has been a really bright future both domestically and internationally.
And then you’ve got the other end of the scale around Ben Radshaw, he’s an 18-year-old Louie Johnson is a 20-year-old, Ollie Spencer is a 20-year-old.
“So for me although it is tough, these are really exciting moments, when working with guys that really keen to develop and get better, and and I know they feel exactly the same as we do, as a coaching staff, and they want to get the win for the club and they want to move this club forward.”
Another standout player that has been making waves since his arrival in the North East, is hard-hitting back-rower Josh Bainbridge. The 27-year-old has England age grade honours, and arrived at Kingston Park from Championship side Coventry. Bainbridge has quickly took up the mantle amongst the Newcastle Falcons leadership team, and had a strong performance last weekend in South Africa.
Codling was full of praise for his back-rower, who has been forming quite the duo with Calum Chick at the back of the Falcons pack this season. Speaking on Bainbridge’s outing in Johanesburg, Codling said:
“What a brilliant individual. There’s a lot of things away from the club that he does, that are inspirational that boys are aware of in this club. He said to me, funnily enough, a few weeks back when he made his debut, that he waited for this moment all his life. So again, the opportunity as a coach sometimes to give people these opportunities that deserve them. It’s inspiring.
“We haven’t had the results we wanted. But within that there’s been a huge amount of positives in terms of the young guys playing and coming through. And again, you’ll see their relevance on Friday and going forward, but also someone like Josh about his attitude, he epitomised everything that’s gone about the club, and we had some tough moments in that game in South Africa. But again, the boys fought back to within a score after around 60 minutes and he was at the forefront of that works incredibly hard. Very, very diligent, always keen to learn and just a joy to work with.”
Despite returning from South Africa without any Challenge Cup points, the Falcons took plenty of important takeaways from the land of the Springboks. Firstly, Codling’s men are set to have a renewed focus on defending the rolling mauls, as the Lions clawed their way over from close range on three occasions. Secondly, the Newcastle Head Coach discussed his side’s adaptability to play with reduced numbers, as he witnessed his Falcons drop two men to the sin bin and defend with 13 players for a brief spell.
“It will be, absolutely. it’s an area that we need to work on, we’re aware of. Both sides of the ball really, the maul, and the set piece is a massive part of the game. And Mickey (Ward) and I have been working together around that area. So we’ve got to make improvements were aware of that in that particular area.
So as you say, Bristol have got a very strong maul. But again, we’ve had similar tests at different times of the year.
“Bath, we went down to Bath and did a great job on both sides of the ball around our maul and their maul, and a couple of other times this season as well. So the boys, know it’s a huge challenge, but often, that gets the juices flowing. So it’ll be a key part of the contest around the set piece, as it always is in the Gallagher premiership, on Friday, I’ll be no different.”
“We like every team in the Premiership will train with a variety of different numbers, whether that’s 15 to 15, 15 v 13, where aware obviously that the number of cards, and the way that the rules have evolved over the last two to three years, that the scenario has happened.
“So, we do train for them as much as we can, also from injuries, so permutations and players off the bench coming in, and potentially playing in different positions, either through red cards, yellow cards or injuries. So these are things that we plan for during the week, we try and get the boys as much support in scenarios that are going to happen.
“So, when it comes to the game they’re comfortable around the decisions we make, and we’re not reflecting on Monday after a game that we’ve already in a sense, pre-mortemed. And they’ve given the boys the strategies and the confidence to be able to deal with these situations.”
In an exciting cross-border clash, Newcastle have announced that they will take on Edinburgh Rugby ‘A’ in February, in an exhibition fixture. This match-up comes during the Premiership’s rest period, as the 2024 Six Nations takes centre stage on the international scene. Hopefully for Codling, a handful of selected Falcons players will be flying the black and white flag for England and beyond, yet the match also plays a valuable part in keeping the unselected players in check.
The fixture will also commemorate the late, great Doddie Wier, with the Falcons confirming a limited edition collaboration with the My Name’5 Doddie MND awareness charity. Codling discussed the importance of the game for his players, and also for the amazing charity, which remembers a Scottish icon.
“So the challenge, as I said, we’ve obviously got back to back like every team. On the flip side of that now, you’ve got a big block of no games around that six nations period. So it’s really important for us, in terms of lots of things. One, for the supporters to be able to keep watching rugby so you don’t get the season sort of fading away.
“Secondly, as you say, for boys to play both some of the younger guys are some of the guys who have got a huge amount of game time. Thirdly, bridging out to Edinburgh. We’ve built strong links up there over the last few months, we’ve trained against them a couple of times, it’s really good club, different competition.
“They’re (Edinburgh) obviously our rivals, and as you say the whole connection around the Doddie Foundation, is an inspiration still to this day, and will always be around the Falcons. The impact he’s had, and will always have here and the legacy he leaves. So the ability to do both. I think he’s a really nice fit.”