Walder the hero in Cup Final epic

13 April 2012

As a boy, Dave Walder dreamed about Newcastle scoring a last-minute winner in the Cup Final and collecting the trophy to a deafening chorus of The Blaydon Races.

Twice in the last three years he has made the FA Cup pilgrimage to Wembley, only to see his home-town team lose by such a distance that there was nothing to shout about, let alone sing.

But Walder's footballing metamorphosis, from schoolboy striker at Newcastle United to Jonny Wilkinson's fly half understudy with the rejuvenated Falcons, has allowed him to follow his dream on a broader front.

There were 23 seconds of injury-time left at Twickenham in a game played before a captivated crowd of 71,000 when Walder turned his perennial sporting fantasy into an unforgettable reality.

His try provided an epic finish to a Tetley's Bitter Cup Final like no other at headquarters and turned Newcastle, who had been virtually down and out moments earlier, into 30-27 winners.

Once they had taken delivery of the trophy and brought it down from the Royal Box, the grand old Geordie anthem reverberated around the stadium from every amplifier, making the Newcastle team's riotous lap of honour sound as if they really were 'gannin alang the Scotswood Road to see the Blaydon Races'.

Walder, at 22, one of three Geordies in a cosmopolitan team but the only one from Newcastle itself, bench, playing an invisible second fiddle while Wilkinson pulled all the strings. To make better use of his pace and vision, Newcastle decided to redeploy him at full back - to such good effect that he is in contention for England's American tour in June.

Walder's decisive intervention, slicing between Harlequins full back Ryan O'Neill and substitute wing Ben Gollings to shred the last piece of cover, ensured an ecstatic as well as controversial end to the final which had everything, including two tries for another 22-year-old, Tom May.

Harlequins had been in control for long enough to have made Newcastle's exhilarating finish irrelevant, despite the handicap of losing David Wilson.

They made the half-mile crawl by coach back across the road to The Stoop with the glazed look of men who had been robbed, although they contributed to the mugging by missing tackles on both May tries.

Nobody will have felt the final, cruel twist more keenly than a distraught Paul Burke. At the end he sank to his knees as if trying to bury his head in sheer anguish. He had outkicked Wilkinson and crowned the outstanding individual performance with the try which put Quins 27-18 ahead going into the last 10 minutes.

At that point even Newcastle rugby director Rob Andrew must have feared his club would be condemned to another hard luck story.

Va'aiga Tuigamala thought they had 'blown it' - and blown it they almost certainly would have done but for touch judge Steve Lander's decision to award the fateful line-out throw to Newcastle after Ian Peel had been tackled into touch following a bullocking run to the corner.

Burke, who dragged him there along with O'Neill, branded the decision a 'disgrace', having watched, horrified, as Newcastle seized the platform to win the Cup.

Referee Ed Morrison said: 'There was no doubt in Steve's mind that the ball touched a Quins player before it went into touch. He was adamant about that and closer to the scene than anyone. When Mark Evans (Quins' acting coach) politely queried the decision afterwards, I told him exactly that. We certainly had no problems with the decision.'

Had it gone the other way, Wilkinson's five missed goal attempts would have taken on a whole new meaning.

But Newcastle's refusal to panic in the disciplined belief that they would get there in the nick of time saved him a lot of explaining.

Andrew said: 'This is the start of something big.'

They could hardly have cut it finer. Wey aye, bonny lads.

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Walder the hero in Cup Final epic

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