By Leipziger
September 9 2012

The Falcons were given a brutal welcome to the real world of the Championship yesterday as a London Scottish fightback made our victory less comfortable than we might have expected.

On the back of a five-point display at Bristol on the opening weekend, we certainly expected the same in the south-west London heat but despite leading by 24 points at half time, a bonus point already in the bag, Scottish never gave in and earned themselves an extra point with four home tries.

Dean Richards brought Grant Shiells, James Hall and Richard Mayhew into the side to play at the Richmond Athletic Ground, a nice little ground with just a stand on one side and a fence around the pitch.

Scottish had former Falcons Mungo Strachan and Ross Samson on the bench.

The exiles began brightly but once the Falcons got into their stride the opening try came quickly as Sean Tomes was driven over for a converted score.

James Love reduced the deficit with a penalty but Ally Hogg continued his fine start to the season with two quick scores, Jimmy Gopperth convering both.

Scottish were full of enthusiasm and commitment, never giving the Falcons any opportunity to get complacent, and Richard Bolt scored his team's opening try following a neat passing move.

A move across the pitch led to Luke Fielden being put in on the right, securing our bonus point. After a scrum when Scottish won an extra 10 metres from their scrum-half getting shirty with replacement Jordi Pasqualin, who had come on for the injured Chris Pilgrim, the Falcons stole the ball deep in our half and Alex Crockett showed a deceptive pair of heels to race in for the fifth try.

Gopperth converted to make the half-time score 11-35. Although Scottish had played quite well, the greater quality in the Newcastle team showed on the scoreboard and surely more tries would follow as the home side tired.

James Hall was next on the scoreboard in the second half as Scottish coughed up ball in their own 22, but with Rob Vickers in the sin bin the hosts' props won a penalty try by standing up instantly in a scrum.

Hogg ran over on the far right to get his hat-trick and the conversion took us tantalising close to 50 points, but we never got there.

Scottish ended the game strongly, with captain Mark Bright scoring before Tyler Hotson squeezed over in the left-hand corner to give his side a much-deserved bonus point.

The final score was 32-49, and everyone was able to catch their breath.

This is a wake-up call to anybody at the club who thought this season would be easy, at least in the first 22 games, though I'm sure nobody did. Richards will no doubt have had words and hopefully Doncaster will feel the backlash this Friday.