Dave Walder Exclusive: ‘Everyone has got the best plan until they get punched in the face’
.jpg "Dave Walder rejoined Newcastle Falcons as a coach 10 years after he left as a player")
Dave Walder rejoined Newcastle Falcons as a coach 10 years after he left as a player
©Chris Lishman
When Dean Richards decided to end his decade-long stint as Director of Rugby at Kingston Park, the announcement also confirmed that head coach Dave Walder would be taking the top job at Newcastle Falcons.
Over the years, Walder has been heralded for his work, many even name-checking the former fly-half as the solution to England’s faltering attack before Martin Gleeson was selected by Eddie Jones.
First appointed as head coach in 2017, Walder is joined by Mark Laycock, Micky Ward, Scott MacLeod and Mark Wilson in the backroom staff at Newcastle with Richards still a phone call away thanks to his part-time consultancy role.
Putting his stamp on things this summer, Walder is looking to add a bit more attacking flair to Falcons’ game plan in order to unleash a backline blessed with the talent of Adam Radwan, Iwan Stephens, Matias Moroni, Matias Orlando and Mateo Carreras.
To begin the season, the North-East side will be without their South American trio who have been busy felling the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship, with the head coach more than happy with how the summer has been going.
“It has been really good,” Walder told TRU. “Everyone is settling in well. We are nowhere near the finished article. It is probably going to take us three or four games of playing.
“What was it Mike Tyson said? Everyone has got the best plan until they get punched in the face.
“We’re pretty happy with where the group are. We have got a really good group of players working hard, brilliant attitude and I guess we’ll know next week how far away we are and where we need to start fixing. We are pretty excited about doing it.”
Beginning the new season at home to Harlequins, Falcons are going to be hoping that this year will see them improve on a 12th place finish last time out.
Last term began with a 26-20 loss at the hands of Quins at Kingston Park, but after boucing back to produce a relatively positive start, the side slowly slid down the Premiership table.
This included a dismal run of games which meant that the men from the North-East lost seven out of their last eight league fixtures.
“It is a completely new setup,” Walder said. “From new coaches and how we are doing things. We spoke pretty early on about not really drawing a line under things, but just starting to put our identity together again.
“It’s something I was part of and in charge of for the past five or six years and I felt we got away from having a real strong identity of the team.
“We spoke at the start of pre-season about what we want to be and what is important for people from the North-East and how we are going to get there and how we need to behave and things like that.
“We are never going to end there, but hopefully we can get further down the line each week.”
In November 2020, Falcons scrum-half Michael Young also spoke about culture and the team’s desire to do the region that they call home proud.
Culture is one of those things in sport which is regularly referenced, getting it right the most important thing on people’s agenda.
And Walder is very much of the mind that getting that aspect spot on at Kingston Park can only be a positive.
“We call is a ‘true north culture’,” Walder said, “and it is about having a positive attitude, it is about being role models and a bit of the North-East and what people from the North-East are about.
“We haven’t got the most money, but we have got people that are very diligent, very resourceful and come up with other ways of thinking about things and we are a very tight unit, and we have to be. We have to stay together.
“I think over the last few years we have drifted and the dynamic of the group hasn’t been good and it has probably distracted us in hindsight with certain things we have done.
“It is about keeping things simple, stripping it back and making sure everyone is pulling in the right direction because everyone wants the same thing, everyone wants what is best for Newcastle Falcons.
“From rugby, that is to win games and from the club, it is to make sure people come in to see us winning games and hopefully the business can thrive.”
Among other changes at Kingston Park, there is a new team room at the stadium. The aim of this is to encourage players to spend more time together away from the changing room.
For all the players that left Newcastle over the summer, there are only a few to have made their way to the North-East.
Josh Peters and Josh Barton have come from Championship clubs, Seb de Chaves is back following two years in Major League Rugby, while fly-halves Josh Thomas and Tian Schoeman will be staking their claim for a starting spot.
Matias Moroni comes from Premiership champions Leicester Tigers, and Vereimi Qorowale joins from the British Army.
Will Welch has also been reinstated as the club’s captain as the side aims to recapture the team spirit from 2017/18 when they made the play-offs as well as in their excellent Championship season that was cut short by Covid-19.
“We have had a brilliant attitude though pre-season, but everyone always does because there is no games, there is no selection, there is no reason to sap,” Walder said.
“Our attitude has been brilliant and it is just making sure we can carry that on and when we are under the pump, we can all pull together in the right direction.
“There will be tough times this year, things won’t go our way, but we will be making sure we stick together, stick in it and approach it with the right mindset.”
