Here comes Jonny

13 April 2012

Newcastle eased into their third English Cup final in five years yesterday, raising the prospect of Jonny Wilkinson appearing at Twickenham this season after all.

A giant-killing too far for the gallant Bees from Birmingham ended with Rob Andrew's team relishing another trip to Headquarters to play Sale on April 17 and their famous fly half looking forward to a comeback. Out of action for more than two months, Wilkinson is on schedule for a return within four weeks.

The promise of the England No 10 salvaging his post-World Cup season will add lustre to the Powergen Cup Final, the first all-northern affair since 1977 when the Tyneside club, in their former guise of Gosforth, beat Waterloo.

Sale expect to rise to the occasion, too, by restoring their own match-winner. England's reserve fly half Charlie Hodgson is due back early next month from a second knee operation.

For all the Bees' bravery in toppling Wasps a fortnight ago, the non-Premiership part-timers were never given a sniff of producing a shock, but at least they had the satisfaction of ensuring that it took a Wilkinsonesque performance from his understudy, Dave Walder, to see them off.

He helped himself to 28 of Newcastle's points and the haul would probably have been closer to 40 but for the chill wind blowing in his face throughout a one- sided second half.

A 50-point deficit might have been rough on the Bees but there was never any danger of Andrew allowing his team to fall into the same embarrassing trap as Wasps by under-estimating the opposition. Five tries in the last 13 minutes was a harsh price to pay as the gulf between the top three of the First Division and the bottom half of the Premiership began to show, with Newcastle more than doubling their lead.

Before the floodgates opened, the last-ditch tackling of full back Dave Knight and right wing Nick Baxter typified the Bees' heroics.

It was to their credit that they made their opponents look very ordinary for almost the entire first half, restricting Newcastle to one try for more than an hour before Mark Mayerhofler's break sent Walder spinning over. Moments beforehand the rank outsiders had defied gravity in glorious fashion, squeezing enough bodies under a driving Newcastle line-out to stop the inevitable try.

Sometimes they were too brave for their own good. Scrum half Paul Knight conceded several stone in weight and still stopped Nick Makin crashing over in the lefthand corner when it seemed that nobody could stop the Newcastle hooker. Inevitably, it took a heavy toll and not just on the elder of the Knight brothers, out for the rest of the season with damaged ribs.

The Bees finished the game with a substitute prop in the back row and a flanker at lock but with pride intact and heads held high.

'By the end, it was like the Battle of the Somme,' said Bees' rugby director Phil Maynard, with understandablehyperbole. 'It seemed to be a more bruising cup-tie than the Wasps one but Newcastle were more highly motivated.

'The last 10 minutes or so were painful to say the least. We operate on such a small budget that their half backs probably cost as much as our entire team.

'Still, it's been a great run. We have put Birmingham rugby on the map.'

Newcastle paid them the compliment of being inhospitable from start to finish, so much so that Mark Woodrow, the electrician whose six goals did for Wasps, managed just one more from the only shot at goal he was permitted all match.

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Here comes Jonny

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