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| Full name | Newcastle Falcons |
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| Founded | 1877 |
| Union | Rugby Football Union |
| Location | Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
| Ground(s) | Kingston Park |
| Capacity | 10,200 |
| Chairman |  Dave Thompson |
| Coach | Steve Bates |
| Captain | Phil Dowson |
| League | Guinness Premiership |
| 2007-08 | 11th |
| Official website | |
| www.newcastle-falcons.co.uk | |
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The Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team currently playing in the Guinness Premiership. The team plays at Kingston Park in Newcastle upon Tyne.
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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.
Club honours
- Premiership 1997/98
- Division Two 1992/93
- National Cup 1976, 1977, 2001, 2004
- Middlesex 7s 2007
Current standings
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| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points for | Points against | Difference | Try Bonus Points | Losing Bonus Points | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bath Rugby | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 159 | 120 | 39 | 2 | 1 | 23 | |||
| 2 | Gloucester Rugby | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 165 | 134 | 31 | 2 | 0 | 22 | |||
| 3 | Harlequins | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 164 | 119 | 45 | 2 | 2 | 20 | |||
| 4 | London Irish | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 144 | 99 | 45 | 1 | 2 | 19 | |||
| 5 | Leicester Tigers | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 132 | 119 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 17 | |||
| 6 | Sale Sharks | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 79 | 84 | -5 | 0 | 0 | 16 | |||
| 7 | Saracens | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 150 | 109 | 41 | 1 | 3 | 16 | |||
| 8 | Worcester Warriors | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 126 | 137 | -11 | 0 | 2 | 14 | |||
| 9 | Northampton Saints | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 111 | 134 | -23 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |||
| 10 | Newcastle Falcons | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 114 | 172 | -58 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |||
| 11 | London Wasps | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 105 | 139 | -34 | 0 | 3 | 7 | |||
| 12 | Bristol Rugby | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 82 | 165 | -83 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |||
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If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
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| Green background are play off places.Pink background is the relegation place Reference www.guinnesspremiership.com: Updated 2008-11-21 --- Current English Leagues |
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Cup Results
Newcastle Falcons are in Pool 3 and will face CA Brive, Rugby Parma F.C. and CR El Salvador. Newcastle currently have 5 points with 1 win and 1 defeat to their name.
Newcastle Falcons are currently last in Pool A and cannot qualify for the semi-finals. Pool A includes Gloucester Rugby, London Wasps and Welsh side Newport Gwent Dragons.
Current squad 2008-2009
2008/2009 Transfers
Adam Balding (IN) Spencer Davey (IN) Tane Tuipulotu (IN) Danny Willams (IN) Matthew Burke (OUT) Lee Dickson (OUT) Toby Flood (OUT) James Hoyle (OUT) Mark Mayerhofler (OUT) Jason Oakes (OUT) Matthew Tait (OUT) Ben Woods (OUT)
Current England Elite squad
Other Internationally capped players
Current Coaching Staff
- Director of Rugy: Steve Bates
- Backs Coach: Alan Tait
- Fowards Coach: Stuart Grimes
- Mark Wilkinson
- Bob Morton
- Rob Bowen
Notable former players
Matthew Burke- Owen Finegan
Rob Andrew- Garath Archer
- John Bentley
- Toby Flood
- Dean Ryan
- Michael Stephenson
- Tim Stimpson
- Tony Underwood
- Mathew Tait
- Dave Walder
- Colin White
- Mark Wilkinson
- Malcolm Young
Mike McCarthy- Ross Nesdale
- Nick Popplewell
Loki Crichton- Pat Lam
- Semo Sititi
- Va'aiga Tuigamala
Gary Armstrong- Richard Breakey
- Steve Brotherstone
- George Graham
- Stuart Grimes
- Craig Hamilton
- John Leslie
- Duncan Madsen
- Jim Pollock
- Arthur Smith
- Alan Tait
- Peter Walton
- Doddie Weir
Epi Taione
Colin Charvis
External links
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 9 November 2008, at 15:14.
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