Just 4,486, including approximately 500 Irish supporters, were present on three sides as the North Terrace was closed because of flooding, as a Falcons side showing nine changes from the team torn apart by Northampton won by a comfortable 23-3 scoreline.

Newcastle went straight on the attack with Mike McCarthy going for the line from a lineout, and Tom May having a good run following a turnover from Cory Harris.  Toby Flood and Anthony Elliott then combined to set up may for another crossfield run, and as we recycled left Connacht were penalised for not rolling away.  Flood kicked the first points of the evening with a penalty.

We soon put together a multi-phase attack which ended when Harris was caught off his feet, although the referee was a touch late as at the previous breakdown Harris, Luke Gross and Mark Mayerhofler were all standing in obstructing offside positions!  The first try came on 17 minutes as we turned the ball over in our own half, and Flood kicked long and chased.  A further knock forward and the fly-half outpaced the Irish defence to touch down, although the TV official’s opinion was required.  Converting the try himself, Flood gave the Falcons a healthy 10-0 lead, and then added to it minutes later with a second penalty from another driving run from May.

Mark McHugh had Connacht’s first real chance by making a run through our lines, beating several players before Matthew Burke caught up and tackled, with Jamie Noon catching the pass to clear up.  Our dominance is proven by the fact that, after 26 minutes, Connacht had made 51 tackles to our 18, though fly-half Paul Warwick missed a chance to cut the arrears by sending a penalty wide of the far post following a penalising of Hall Charlton (or Charlton Hall, as Scott Hastings called him on Sky).

The visitors came more into the game and in the five or six minutes before half time had a little spell of good possession, and when Harris played the ball on the ground just before half time Warwick kicked his side’s first points with a penalty.  At half time we had a 10-3 advantage, but showed no signs of letting up with Andy Long and Robbie Morris replacing Matt Thompson and Jonny Williams.

Connacht started the second half as the better team, with us only really going forward with a long Flood kick.  The game swung back to us though when James Grindal replaced Charlton, and Burke set us away by forcing McHugh to hold on by tackling him after a kick.  May then tried a chip and chase on the away line but was obstructed, and Connacht cleared big time into our 22.

Jamie Noon was set up by Grindal and Flood but dropped a pass, as more chances went begging.  Following the introduction of Andy Perry for Luke Gross, we lost the ball from our own penalty lineout on the Connacht 22 but they could only clear back to the same position.  Flood and Mayerhofler went for the line from the throw but the referee gave Connacht a penalty.

We finally sealed the win soon after the hour, as Anthony Elliott kicked and ran, forcing Connacht to concede a lineout.  McCarthy broke through the ensuing maul to score in the left corner, and Flood conversion put us 20-3 up.  Burke almost scored soon afterwards with a kick through on the right, but the ball had nudged touch and he hadn’t the pace to get to it anyway.  An almost beheaded Flash broke his fall on the advertising boards!

We kicked a succession of penalties into the corner, looking for a third score, as Ben Woods replaced the superb Harris.  Finally Connacht replacement Michael Swift was sin-binned for not rolling away, and Flood finished off the scoring with a penalty.  There was time for the visitors to attack in the left corner, but we were given a penalty after turning over, and ended with a 23-3 victory to seal a home semi-final against London Irish or Bayonne.

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