“We’ll have fun rising to challenge,” says Newcastle’s Dean Richards
The former England No.8 knows that as the side relegated from the promised land of the Premiership the Falcons will be firmly in the sights of all 11 of their league rivals.
But he has seen it all before in the second tier of English rugby – albeit in the old National One, the 16-team forerunner to the Championship.
Indeed on his watch Harlequins nearly came a cropper just two games into their bid to immediately bounce back into the Premiership.
Richards remembers the game at Otley on September 10, 2005 well. “The grass was about 18 inches long, the ball was slightly under inflated, you could hardly see the lines, and the referee wasn’t particularly good on the day. All these things can conspire against you and we found it very difficult.”
Otley were on the verge of recording the most famous victory seen at Cross Green since The North beat the All Blacks in 1979 only for Mel Deane, on as a replacement for World Cup winner Will Greenwood, to shatter their dreams with the match-winning try deep into injury time.
The relief on the bloodied face of All Blacks ace Andrew Mehrtens and the rest of Harlequins’ star-studded cast at the final whistle was a sight to behold.
Richards added: “We had a quality team out that day and we were extremely dominant in the scrum and didn’t get our reward there. In fact we got penalised for pushing too hard.
“It was one of those days whereby it could have gone horribly wrong but thankfully we dug ourselves out of a big hole.
“Having won comfortably at Birmingham & Solihull the week before I think everybody thought it was going to be a breeze.
“It was a big wake-up call and it made the players realise that wherever we went, whoever we played against it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Harlequins did eventually go on to lose a game – at Exeter‘s County Ground in late February – but the title race was effectively sewn up by then and they went up under the first-past-the-post system of promotion.
Richards is still a believer that the team that finishes top should be crowned champions and recognises the introduction of play-offs makes the challenge he faces at Newcastle different to the one he had at Quins.
“The play-offs, assuming we get into the top four, make it a different challenge because you are not rewarded for your consistency over the course of the season which I still think should be the case.
“And the fact that May 29 is the final date of the play-offs makes for a long season.
“But in essence the bulk of the season won’t have changed. The players will be going to places they won’t have played at before; they will experience changing facilities they won’t have experienced before; and they’ll come across crowds that will be a lot closer to the field and, as such, a little bit louder in some ways.
“It will be a different challenge for them to get accustomed to that type of environment. But we will have fun and learn.”
He continued: “I think we have a much more balanced squad and we will be aiming to win every game. That’s always the goal at whatever club I’m at.
“We will be aiming to finish top but every game will be a very, very difficult for us.
“As we are the side that has come down we will be everyone else’s cup final. We are under no illusions that everybody will be trying to beat us. As I found with Quins there is absolutely no given in the Championship, you have to fight for everything.”
Meanwhile, Richards revealed that his first job back into rugby could have ended in disaster had the former policeman not been offered the Newcastle post.
Rugby Lions chairman Michael Aland saw Richards as the jewel in his crown in his ambitious but ultimately flawed bid to take the club from the depths of National 3 and into the Heineken Cup.
That dream has since been shattered following the liquidation of Aland’s company and the decision of the RFU to boot the club that represents the birthplace of the game out of the leagues.
“I was approached (by Aland) and asked to come on board and I looked at it,” Richards told The Rugby Paper.
“The project sounded absolutely fantastic and it was one of my options.
“It’s a shame that it didn’t happen because had it of happened it would have been wonderful for the region as well as Rugby town.”
While Aland is probably persona non grata in the town of Rugby, Richards is unlikely to be afforded such treatment in the sport that he loves.
There is still a great deal of affection for a genuine ‘rugby man’ despite the fake injury scandal that erupted when he was in charge of Harlequins, leading to a three-year worldwide ban.
Richards has served his time with good grace and says he will take any lingering criticism on the chin.
“Nothing has changed in terms of my appetite and what I want out of the game. I want to win things and that won’t change at all.
“But I have huge regrets. I understand exactly where the boundaries lie and I would never step over them again.
“If people want to say something, they can say something. I have done my three years. If they feel I should have got more (of a ban), then so be it. Some people feel I should have got a little bit less, so be it.
“I was given three years and I have done three years.”
JON NEWCOMBE
