EDF Energy Cup - : Half century for fit-again Flood

Half century for fit-again Flood

29 November 2007, 4:12 pm

Toby Flood makes his 50th start for Newcastle Falcons in Saturday's EDF Energy Cup encounter at London Wasps, having put his recent injury problems firmly behind him.

The World Cup star was instrumental in the 29-24 victory over Newport Gwent Dragons which kept the Falcons' hopes alive in the competition, although his involvement came at a cost as a freak collision with team mate Mathew Tait resulted in a torn scrotum for the 22-year-old.

"Taity actually cooked a meal for me the other day," joked Flood. "That's his pathetic way of saying sorry, so I suppose I'll have to forgive him now!

"This week he's playing fullback and we're a bit further apart on the field, so the chances of him inflicting another injury on me are minimal, touch wood."

Revealing the circumstances surrounding the injury, he added: "It was a bit of a scary moment to be honest.

"On the night of the game itself I didn't really notice anything major, then when I woke up the next morning I was in a lot of pain.

"The lads are all taking the Mickey saying I had a space hopper between my legs, but joking aside it could have been a serious problem and I was fortunate not to have too much damage down there.

"The worst part was that I actually got over the injury in time to play in the league game against Wasps last weekend, but ten minutes in to my first training session I rolled my ankle, which meant I had to miss that match as well."

With Tait now forgiven for his misdemeanour, Flood can only look forward to watching the England speedster in his new position of fullback this weekend, stating: "I'm really excited for Taity, because this is a big chance for him, and I think it will give the team another dimension having him at the back with time and space on the ball.

"What we do have to remember is that this is a new position for him, so it will take time to get used to it, but I can't wait to see him turn on the gas and show us what he can do."

While Tait sports the 15 on his back this weekend with Flood at 12, he insisted: "Numbers on shirts are totally irrelevant.

"Nobody ever believes us when we say that, but it's the truth, especially in the area where I play. Ten and twelve in modern rugby are so similar, there's virtually no distinction between the two any more."

With fellow World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson lining up alongside him as both hit the comeback trail, Flood said: "It's exciting firstly to be back, and secondly to be playing alongside Jonny, so I'm just looking forward to the game and seeing what we can do.

"He brings a massive amount to my game, and I hope the same applies the other way round for the good of the team."

Saturday, of course, is the second time in the space of six days that the Falcons have travelled to Wasps, having suffered a 35-12 Adams Park defeat in Guinness Premiership action last Sunday.

"The video made for tough watching on Monday morning, beause pretty much every little mistake we made was punished on the scoreboard," said Flood.

"It was down to a number of things, like forcing a pass that wasn't on, not quite getting through our backs moves and not executing our plays.

"I listened to the start of the game on the radio, and after half an hour it was still 0-0. I went outside for ten minutes, came back in and all of a sudden we were 18-0 down, so obviously we have been working on avoiding that type of scenario from happening again.

"If we're totally honest we probably switched off mentally during that period, and against the European champions that's always going to cost you. In the end what it did was make the scoreline look more drastic than the game actually was, but as we all know it's the score that matters most."

But with silverware in mind, Flood insisted it will be different second time around as the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals loom large.

"This is a club with a huge Cup tradition, dating as far back as the 1970s with Gosforth and the two Cup final wins in this current decade, so we all know how important it is," he said.

"We are 80 minutes away from a big semi-final at the Millennium Stadium, so we're excited about what the competition can do for this team, the fans and the club as a whole."