It has long been part of rugby folklore that the most seismic event in the history of the sport happened in Paris in August 1995 when the game's rulers voted to end their century-old attachment to amateurism and usher in the era of pay-for-play.

And yes, the rugby Richter scale did record a sudden surge on that seminal day 17 years ago. Yet in many ways the aftershocks were even more startling, and none shook the sport's foundations quite so violently than the one that occurred just two weeks later, when Sir John Hall, the multi-millionaire property developer who already owned a large chunk of Newcastle United, took control of Newcastle Gosforth RFC as well.

At the time, the club was sleepwalking its way to obscurity, in a prolonged and gentle decline from the heady days of the 1970s when players such as Roger Uttley and Duncan Madsen helped to establish them as one of England's strongest sides. They were bogged down in the lower reaches of the Second Division, but Hall had a vision to take them back to the top . . . and a chequebook to match.

Until August 1995, professionalism had been an abstraction, a moral concept rather than a commercial game-changer. Officials fretted anxiously about the spirit of rugby, but Hall rendered them irrelevant as his deep pockets and tireless dynamism blew the old order away. In his world, money talked.

The Hall millions brought Rob Andrew to run the rugby side of things. Over the next few weeks, players of the calibre of Pat Lam, Dean Ryan, Gary Armstrong and, most sensational of all, Va'aiga Tuigamala had signed up. Cobbled-together sides had rarely succeeded in the sport – goodness knows, Harlequins had tried often enough – but this one was too good to fail.

They took the Division Two title in 1997. In 1998 they became English champions in their first season back in the top flight. Other investors piled into the sport in Hall's wake, but the road map of professional rugby had been drawn up in Newcastle.

But while sides like Wasps and Saracens and Northampton powered on, Newcastle – or the Falcons as they had become known – went back into a shell. The top players drifted away and Hall lost interest. He took a massive financial hit on the venture before selling his stake in the club to Dave Thompson, another millionaire but one who was also a dyed-in-the-wool rugby nut as well.

Thompson looked after things well enough for a decade. But the canny businessman had no interest in squandering money on the club, and the galaxy of stars grew dimmer with every passing season. No obstacles were put in the way of England Test players like Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Noon and Matthew Tait when they wanted to move on. Australia's Matt Burke and New Zealand's Carl Hayman were brought in, but they were big stars in a wee picture, and one that was getting smaller all the time.

Escapology was the one thing that Newcastle did seem to have a talent for. They never got back to the high-water mark of 1998, but in their perennial battles against relegation, they never slipped beneath the waves either. Over the past five seasons, their finishes in the 12-team Aviva Premiership have read: 9th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 11th. Last year they survived only on points difference ahead of Leeds, who somehow managed to turn a 21-0 lead against Northampton into a 31-24 defeat in their final game of the season.

And now, with just two games remaining, their top-tier status is hanging by a thread again. A few weeks ago the club, now owned by Jordanian-born businessman Semore Kurdi, looked dead in the water, adrift at the foot of the Aviva Premiership and seemingly destined for relegation. However, back-to-back victories over Sale (at home) and Gloucester (away) have brought them back to within four points of crisis-ridden Wasps with just two rounds left to play.

The situation is complex. Of the four clubs vying for the promotion slot from the RFU Championship, only Bristol and London Welsh have said they want to go up, and only Bristol have stadium facilities that would allow them to enter the Premiership under current rules. There is also the possibility of Wasps suffering a points deduction due to their current financial difficulties, although it is unclear whether that would be applied to this season's table or next's.

It is easy to understand why Gary Gold, the former South Africa assistant coach who took over as Falcons' head coach from Alan Tait at the start of this year, should want his players to focus only on the next game – they host Saracens on Friday – rather than worry about the matrix of what-ifs that lies ahead.

"So much as possible we need to focus on the things we can be in control of," said Gold yesterday. "Worrying about Wasps and what the permutations are will just muddy the waters for us. Worrying about administration issues and things with the Championship is just nonsense for us at the moment."

Even in adversity, and in the knowledge that he is only caretaking at Kingston Park until Dean Richards returns from his Bloodgate ban to take over as director of rugby in August, Gold has developed a strong affection for the community ethos around Newcastle. Richards has said that he is sanguine about the prospect of relegation, claiming that it would simply "extend ambitions by one year," but Gold believes top-flight rugby is vital in the north-east.

"Maybe it's because we're so far away from the other Premiership clubs, but there's a real fighting spirit here."

If Newcastle can take something against Saracens tomorrow, they could set up a winner-takes-all dogfight away to Wasps in their final match the following weekend. And even if their grip on Premiership status is lost, they will certainly go down fighting. And they will probably fight their way back up again.

THE McFALCONS

15 Steve Jones

14 Alan Tait

13 Andy Henderson

12 John Leslie

11 Michael Tait

10 Phil Godman

19 Gary Armstrong (pictured)

11 George Graham

12 Steve Brotherstone

13 Euan Murray

14 Stuart Grimes

15 Richard Metcalfe

16 Peter Walton

17 Ally Hogg

18 Doddie Weir