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Winless Newcastle hoping ill wind will foil struggling French giants

Adam Radwan of Newcastle Falcons looks dejected during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on December 03, 2023 in Leicester, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Winless Newcastle Falcons cannot compete with Montpellier’s playing budget or high-profile squad and will need to call upon the North East’s bitter winter weather to level the playing field when the teams clash in the European Challenge Cup at Kingston Park this weekend.

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That’s the verdict of Falcons forwards coach Micky Ward who wears shorts even in the coldest months and fully understands the impact the cold wind blowing in from the North Sea can have on opponents. Add to the equation the fact that Montpellier have brought in a new coaching team this season under Bernard Laporte -sacking England’s Richard Cockerill in the process – and are on their own eight-game losing run and there are reasons to believe the Falcons can register their first victory of the season after eight defeats in the Premiership. Newcastle have enjoyed success in a previous meeting with Montpellier at Kingston Park, winning a Champions Cup clash 23-20 in 2018.

Montpellier, who started the season registering an opening win over back-to-back European champions La Rochelle,  have a squad that includes former Exeter Chiefs Sam Simmonds and Harry Williams along with Paolo Garbisi, of Italy, South African World Cup winner Cobus Reinach, Wales prop Henry Thomas and a number of French internationals headed by lock Paul Willemse.

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Jacques Nienaber on the perception of empty stadiums

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    Jacques Nienaber on the perception of empty stadiums

    Patently, both teams are in need of a confidence boost and Ward said: “It is beautiful across in France but we have temperatures of 2C, sleet coming down and it’s freezing cold. You have to use everything you can when you are playing teams like this. Hopefully, it will be cold and nice and wet on match day.

    “When you get into a habit of losing then it becomes acceptable and we have said for a  couple of weeks that once we get that first win the second and third will come off that. Hopefully, this match will be the springboard and get that momentum. That’s what we are hoping for. We beat them in the Champions Cup and so we know we have turned them over at home before.

    “Montpellier have an outstanding squad but haven’t had it all their own way this season with a poor start. Cockers (Cockerill) is a good bloke but he has been given the bullet and they have brought other people in. We don’t know if they are going to come with all their big guns and try and get their own momentum but we have a rough idea of the mentality they will come with in this transition period.

    “It is a tough start to the season with 21 weeks on the bounce without a break and it is nice to freshen things up with Montpellier at home and then we travel to South Africa to face the Lions and that means we can try a few different things including going to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland for a training session this week. We do things as a group, getting off-site to do different things so it’s not the same every week. We had to get vaccinations and got through passport control to get to Sunderland and it was a bit interesting for Phil Brantingham, our prop, who is a hardcore Newcastle United season ticket holder and struggled a bit .”

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    RedWarrior 14 minutes ago
    Many England fans echoing the same gripe following Six Nations loss

    The English defense was excellent in the first half. This is considering Ireland's attack has improved significantly since the Autumn with former Leinster attack coach Goodman. Ireland were beaten by NZ in the Autumn, are behind SA and arguably behind France so de facto 4th in order (rankings take time to catch up) As Eddie Jones said Ireland are still in that elite group so England's domination in the first half is noteworthy.

    I believe they have spent the time since the Autumn largely on defence. On broken play they were relying on Smiths instint along with some jiggery pokery. For Smiths early line break a Twindaloo blocked Baird which left the gap for smith. It looked like he did Aki, but Baird was a little late arriving and clever play by Tom Curry allowed the gap for Smith. Earls line break was Smith spotting Baird coming out and beating him with a beautiful pass to Earl.

    We saw the rehearsed plays for a couple of Ireland's tries. The Aki try was just identifying that England tended to hide Smith on the wing creating a vulnerability which Ireland exploited with one of Akis great finishes.

    Although Ireland were relaxing at the end the two English tries were good enough quality and we may see more of it next week (Scotland will also have taken note).

    Although on the easier side of the draw Borthwick almost took England to a RWC final.

    But in common with the top4 you need to have firepower to get those tries in big games. Can Borthwick manage that? I don't think so.

    Next week even if England have a great first half again, you would be looking at France converting 3 of those Irish chances and pushing on after the break.

    Can Borthwick develop a plan to beat France in the next few years. If the answer is no England need to find someone who can.

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