This felt like a victory for Newcastle before the match had even kicked off. The Falcons, enjoying their best season for 16 years, attracted a crowd of 30,174 to St James’ Park for a match they had billed as The Big One.
The attendance dwarfed their previous record home crowd of 11,750, set during a Premiership victory over Bath at Gateshead International Stadium in May 1998. More significant, it was around four times bigger than they usually attract to Kingston Park and also three times more profitable.
Toby Flood, a ball-boy at St James’ Park in his youth, orchestrated affairs for Dean Richards’ men at fly-half and his educated right boot harvested an impressive 20-point haul.
Vereniki Goneva, meanwhile, kept his pre-match promise to mimic Alan Shearer’s famous goal celebrations when he scored. After Goneva sauntered clear to score at the Leazes End during the first half, the Fijian winger peeled away with his right arm raised aloft. It was that kind of night.
Newcastle climbed to third and Richards, their director of rugby, said: “The atmosphere was absolutely brilliant and I think we probably deserved to nick it on the day. There is more to Newcastle than just soccer and it’s just a sports-mad city and region.”
There is a three-year agreement for the Falcons to play an annual Premiership home match here. Next year they are aiming to fill the lower bowl of St James’ Park – which holds 36,000 – and then fill the stadium to its capacity of 52,405 in year three.
This entertaining win delighted the north-east public, encouraged hopes that many new fans will watch the Falcons on a regular basis and reaffirmed Richards’ men as serious play-off contenders.
There were emotional scenes before kick-off when the Newcastle legend Doddie Weir flanked by family members, brought the match ball out on to the pitch. Weir has motor neurone disease and the Falcons wore a specially designed shirt bearing the logo of his foundation, with all proceeds from shirt sales going to the charity.
Weir was part of Newcastle’s title-winning side in 1998 and remains a much-loved figure in these parts.
Richards has built a team with a homegrown heart and his shrewd recruitment and motivational powers have got the Falcons punching well above their weight. Newcastle thought they had scored from their first attack when Sinoti Sinoti scampered clear down the left flank but the centre Chris Harris was deemed to have knocked on.
Northampton, enduring their worst campaign since they were relegated in 2007, claimed their first try in the 11th minute when blindside flanker David Ribbans powered over from close range. But midway through the first half Goneva collected possession at a ruck and waltzed clear to score, celebrating Shearer-style.
Six minutes before the break, Goneva failed to deal with a high kick and the Northampton centre Rob Horne was the beneficiary. The visitors then claimed their third try in the 51st minute when Nafi Tuitavake dived over in the right corner to finish a sweeping move.
Yet Newcastle had a spirit that would not be broken and Flood’s boot kept the scoreboard ticking over with three more second-half penalties to edge out the ill-disciplined visitors.
Alan Gaffney, the Saints’ acting director of rugby, conceded: “Giving Toby Flood so many kicks at goal isn’t good enough. It has been a common theme over the last three or four games and we need to be better, but it was a great innovation by Newcastle to put the game on at a stadium like this and our players loved coming here.”