Newcastle looking for another day at the races

By JON NEWCOMBE

PREVIEW…

Newcastle v Saracens

Today. Kick-off 3pm, Kingston Park

FRESH from winning his scrum battle – if not the verbal exchanges – with Kyle Sinckler, up-andcoming prop Adam Brocklebank is eager for Newcastle to back up last Friday's 30-15 win over Bristol by taking another big scalp.

A week after The Blaydon Races was belted out to celebrate the club's first win of the Premiership season, Newcastle are preparing to face a transformed Saracens side that have kicked their old pragmatic ways into touch in favour of a more dynamic, attacking approach.

Brocklebank said: “The Saracens of old would just kick, kick, kick and wait for a mistake and capitalise on that. But they seem to have a little bit more ambition to play, they play from anywhere, they are a lot more ambitious.”

Newcastle themselves, though, are starting to show a different side to their game, as head coach Dave Walder insisted they would on the eve of the season. Their willingness to give it more of a go with ball in hand was never more evident than when Mateo Carreras scored a brilliant try deep into injury-time that secured the Falcons a rare try bonus point.

Liverpudlian Brocklebank says the shift in focus has had total buy-in from the Falcons players. “We are a different team with a different mindset,” he said.

“In years gone by you'd have seen the fly-half literally counting down the seconds and the minute it's gone dead, boot it out and we'd have been happy with the win. But we have got everything to fight for, we haven't got the points we should have, and we are now pushing for that extra try and bonus point. It seems to have got people on the same page.

“We have got to build on that now. Yes, we beat Bristol, yes we are aware they probably didn't play their best but there was a lot of positives to take from that.

“It was nice to get a win, it is something we have been working towards.”

The rousing, post-match rendition of The Blaydon Races only added to the buoyant mood at Kingston Park, not that newlyarrived Argentinian midfield duo, Matias Moroni and Matias Orlando, two key players behind the win, would have known what was going on.

“I swear they just mime anything they want and hope they get away with it,” Brocklebank joked. “It's a tradition that we only sing that song when we get a win so it was nice to see a few smiles and it was nice for the boys who haven't experienced that before to experience it.”

One of the main talking points from the win over Bristol was British & Irish Lion Sinckler's response to a bit of banter from Brocklebank, with the better-known of the two props caught on camera saying ‘I don't even know who you are'.

Brocklebank gets the last laugh, however, after revealing Sinckler is a one trick pony when it comes to one-liners. “I am hoping next time we play he uses some other chat because that's the second time he has used that,” Brocklebank said.

“We had a very good day at the scrum and we were down to six men and they got a penalty and I basically told him it was about time he turned up.

“The good thing about rugby is that you can be the biggest of enemies over 80 minutes and then you come off that pitch and you are best mates. Once the final whistle goes, that's it. We shook hands and laughed it off.”