Wey, that’s another good game I’ve missed! The urgent need to paint my flat yesterday led to another hot Friday night date with Smithy and Marko (their voices at least), and even with that and Twitter I lost count of the tries.
Perhaps the new scoreboard kept a running total of tries as well as points?
Certainly fans have been generous in their praise of the Falcons’ performance, particularly Jimmy Gopperth who has struggled recently and received some criticism.
It’s good to see some fringe players get a runout even in this season of rotation. James Hall will have appreciated the game and on Twitter Jordi Pasqualin indicated that he enjoyed his 20 minutes.
No doubt this win, our second-biggest of the season, will have given the team a cheer after a couple of months in which they have at times seemed to go through the motions ahead of the.playoffs.
Getting into the last four of the B&I Cup is certainly not a bad thing and I’m glad the Falcons are taking this competition seriously, unlike the visitors it seems.
I didn’t take much notice of the Nottingham side, bar the absence of Brent Wilson, until Smithy said on the radio that none of the visiting starting XV had started when we visited Meadow Lane a couple of weeks ago.
Obviously the Falcons can’t do anything about that and our lads will know that a playoff againat the Archers will be far more difficult than this game was. But I can’t believe that playing the reserves and getting hammered helps anyone, not least the players Nottingham sent out on Friday.
Fair enough none of their top players was injured, but any of the men who took a battering might be needed in the playoffs. They might have in the back of their minds that they weren’t considered important enough to get a rest in the cup quarters.
I’m really getting into this psychology thing, I think it will be important. Perhaps I’m not drawing the right conclusions, but I’m sure our coaches will be sure tp have the team in the right frame of mind come squeaky bum time.
Speaking of draws, the semi-finals are drawn tomorrow morning apparently. I quite fancy another trip to Bedford but I’d prefer it in the final as it’s a nice easy one to get to on a Friday night from London. Bristol is also doable mind.
You can never moan about a home draw though, and that would give us the best chance.
By the time the semi comes around, we’ll know our first (and hopefully not only) playoff opponents. Four successive matches against Bristol is a possibility.
(Follow The South Stand Choir: @SouthStandChoir)
