Less than 48 hours after Rob Andrew had apologised through gritted teeth to Olivier Azam and the Gloucester supporters for allegations he made against them after Newcastle's stormy Premiership match at Kingsholm last December, the Falcons fatefully booked a return to the ground in the championship play-off quarter-finals on Saturday.
The final round of the league season saw Northampton and Newcastle swap places but otherwise it was a case of as you were in the table. London Irish joined the Tigers, Sale and Gloucester in qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup.
Northampton and Newcastle will fill the remaining two positions unless Bristol and Wasps make the play-off final. That is unlikely in the case of Bristol who helped themselves to the shortest of straws with a trip to Welford Road, but Wasps are in form and will not be daunted by the prospect of facing Sale on Sunday.
"The prospect of going back to Gloucester does not bother me," said Andrew, whose ban from the ground, imposed after the last league meeting between the sides, was lifted last week.
"I have apologised for certain things I said at the after-match press conference and that is the end of the matter. It is sod's law that we have to go back there and we will be going flat out for the win."
The Newcastle flanker Epi Taione, who was sent off with Azam for fighting, will not be playing because of a hand injury. "That may help," said Andrew. "I am not going to make a big play of all this and I am sure the vast majority of Gloucester supporters will welcome me with open arms."
Yesterday was an afternoon of farewells. The old stand at Franklin's Gardens, built 75 years ago, was seeing its last league action before demolition while Newcastle's veteran campaigners Pat Lam and Va'aiga Tuigamala were making their final Premiership appearances before retirement.
Lam was introduced to the action after 37 minutes when the flanker Jon Dunbar succumbed to a knee injury. The former Northampton captain, who had been give a warm reception by the crowd, made an immediate impact. He received his first pass on the right wing and cut inside a static defence to send in the lock Hugh Vyvyan.
When the two sides met in the Powergen Cup semi-final here last March it was all over at half-time when the Saints led by 30 points, but even though they were 8-0 ahead yesterday, after 24 minutes their play lacked conviction with their lineout haphazard and their ball retention lacking. Newcastle had a hard physical edge and behind the scrum Jonny Wilkinson was in supreme form.
Northampton lost their captain Budge Pountney just before the interval with an eye injury, the cause of which will be investigated by the Saints this week, but they looked to have killed off the game in the third quarter when Mark Soden's try took them 21-10 ahead only for Wilkinson to silence the crowd with three penalties in six minutes, two from inside his own half, before Paul Grayson settled the match with his fourth penalty one minute from time.
Andrew and his opposite number Wayne Smith alluded to the demands being placed on players without overtly questioning the merits of the play-offs and despite the peace which has broken out in English rugby in the last year, much still needs to be done.
"Why is Clive Woodward ringing players who went on the Lions tour last summer and demanding that they go to Argentina with England next month?" asked the Northampton chairman Keith Barwell, who claimed that the single biggest problem the game faced was "the arrogant and amateurish people in authority".
Rotherham would agree with him after a weekend robbed of excitement because those in charge of the game do not cherish the principle of promotion and relegation.
Northampton: Shaw; Brooks, Jorgensen (Tucker, 11), Leslie, Cohen (Beal, h-t); Grayson, Dawson; Smith, S Thompson (Richmond, h-t), Stewart (Morris, h-t), Phillips, Brouzet, Blowers, Pountney (capt; Seely, 29), Soden.
Tries: Grayson, Soden. Con: Grayson. Pens: Grayson 4.
Newcastle: Walder; Botham, Noon, May (Tuigamala, 66), Stephenson; Wilkinson (capt), Charlton; Graham, M Thompson (Makin, 63), Hurter, Vyvyan, Grimes, Dunbar (Lam, 37), Mower (Devonshire, h-t), Arnold.
Try: Vyvyan. Con: Wilkinson. Pens: Wilkinson 4.
Sin-bin: Vyvyan 49
Referee: A Spreadbury (Bristol).
Attendance: 9,292
