It was a game that Harlequins deserved to win and should have done so easily but for the failure of the referee to deal evenly with the infringements on both sides.  In the end it was the award of a penalty try against Quins for being offside at a maul virtually on their own line which proved the coup de grace, edging Falcons ahead when they had been trailing 12 -18.

But this was a wholly different Harlequins performance from the two previous matches.  They defended with great commitment and despite the loss of first Luke Sherriff and then Simon Miall to the sin-bin, Newcastle had no tries, other than the penalty try, to show for their efforts being reliant upon the slightly fallible boot of Wilkinson for the points. 

It was 15 minutes into the match and after two missed attempts from close range that Wilkinson finally put the first points on the board from about 20 metres.  Staunton levelled the scores less than five minutes later when a rare penalty was awarded to Quins.

Then came the first of the Quins’ tries when Duffy received the ball from Staunton just outside his 22-metre line, went through a gap and, with great pace,  beat both Wilkinson and Burke to give George Harder the scoring pass to go between the posts. 

With the simple conversion Quins led 3- 10.  Further penalties brought the half-time score to 9 -13 despite Quins being reduced to 14 men for the last few minutes of the half.

There was little else of note in the half except the sight of Vos tackling Wilkinson and dropping him on his back from a great height in the sort of tackle which Wilkinson is more often the maker than the recipient. 

The second half started with Quins turning over ball following the restart and Staunton, with a fine break sliced through the Newcastle defence to find Duffy to his left for a fine try.  Staunton could not add the points, but Quins led 9 – 18 still with only 14 men.  Back to full strength with the return of Sherriff, the yellow card was next flourished at Simon Miall reducing Quins to 14 again and the resulting penalty further reduced the points difference with the penalty try edging Newcastle ahead at 19 – 18.

A missed penalty kick by Staunton was followed by another successful kick by Wilkinson.  Then a yellow card for McCarthy for not releasing the tackled player on the ground brought another successful kick from Staunton and set up the rather frantic finish in which first another penalty attempt by Staunton from 45 metres went wide and a dropped goal attempt failed to reach its target.

So Quins were left with only one point rather than the four they could easily have gained.  They played with commitment and skill and showed that they will surely start to win matches, provided they are not whistled out of them by the officials.  Their defence was never penetrated and they scored tries.  They can only get better and they will.

I cannot report upon the comments of the respective coaches at the press conference since I was refused a press pass by the new media representative of Newcastle. His half empty press box, in which his predecessor always permitted me to sit, was eloquent rebuttal of his claim that he had to take care of the commercial press first.  So I am relieved from having to listen to and report the whingeing of Rob Andrew which inevitably follows any match in which Newcastle participate.   I could report on Mark Evans’ view since he gave it to me at the airport as we boarded the plane south.  He felt we could and should have won the match and his view of the referee is best not quoted despite his having given me permission to so do.

Newcastle: Try Penalty; Conversion Wilkinson; Penalties Wilkinson 5.

Harlequins: Tries Harder, Duffy; Conversion Staunton Penalties Staunton 3.

Newcastle: M Burke; T May, J Noon, M Mayerhofler (D Walder, 18), M Stephenson; J Wilkinson (co-capt), H Charlton (J Grindal, 60); I Peel (co-capt), A Long (M Thompson, 63), M Ward (J Isaacson, 40), S Grimes, C Hamilton (L Gross, 40), M McCarthy, S Sititi, C Charvis.

Harlequins: G Duffy; S Keogh, G Harder, A Reay, U Monye; J Staunton, S So'olalo; C Jones (M Worsley, 63), A Tiatia, J Dawson, K Rudzki, S Miall (R Winters, 63), L Sherrif, T Diprose, A Vos (capt).

Referee: S Davey (Sussex).

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