By AlanQuin
November 16 2009

Despite a rather scrappy, error strewn game, Harlequins’ second visit to the North-East resulted in a win over an ineffective Newcastle Falcons side by 8 – 19. Quins remain unbeaten in the LV= Cup, but second in their group behind Wasps.

Quins were immediately on the attack from the kick off and the Falcons went offside in their own twenty-two giving Clegg the opportunity to kick a simple penalty in only the second minute of the match.  Both sides were attempting to attack but the Newcastle centres knocked on with such frequency that the whistle sounded monotonously often.  Quins, too, contributed to the error count and both sides were better at defence than attack.  Neither could open up the defence to penetrate to the try line, although a chip through from George Lowe won the race to the dead ball line as he tried to score.

Clegg and Newcastle fly-half Miller were both successful with penalty kicks as Falcons went offside and Quins went in off their feet at a breakdown.  The score became 3 – 6. Then Tom Guest kicked the ball through along the left wing and Sam Smith, chasing hard, kicked on across the try line and followed up to touch down for a good try.  Clegg added the conversion. At the half-hour the score was 3 – 13.

In the last 10 minutes Miller missed with another Falcons’ penalty attempt and Lowe hacked a loose ball towards the line and appeared to have a good try-scoring chance, but slipped as he picked the ball up and the chance was gone.

Newcastle began the second half with clear intention to attack and score.  Unforced errors and good defence from Quins frustrated their efforts. A long stoppage for an injury to Neil McMillan, who was stretchered from the pitch, necessitated a substitution as Luke Wallace replaced him.  Although Clegg missed touch from a penalty that had been awarded before the injury stoppage, he made amends from another penalty a couple of minutes later as he added another three points from wide out on the left.

More substitutions followed as Harlequins replaced their entire front row!   Shortly afterwards Clegg missed a simple penalty kick from about 25 metres but immediately afterwards succeeded with another kick from just inside the Falcons’ half increasing the score to 3 – 19.  That ended Quins’ scoring although Clegg had a further chance that drifted wide.

Despite most of the play being well inside the Falcons’ half of the pitch, Quins were unable to penetrate and score.  The home side did break away and score, the referee apparently turning a blind eye to a blatant knock on that most of the crowd could see easily.  It was scant consolation for Newcastle and with the conversion attempt failing, the match ended with a Harlequin victory and that is pretty rare at Kingston Park.

Far and away the best performance of the day came from Tom Guest, as Newcastle Director of Rugby Steve Bates acknowledged.  Guest consistently made important carries from the base of the scrum and took the attack to his opponents.  His influence throughout the game was dynamic.

Having been presented with a match programme in the press room, I was astonished to find that there was no team list in its 32 pages which consisted mainly of 18 pages of advertising.  There were no particulars of either team’s players or squad.  The rip-off is that this is being peddled to the spectator at £2.50 each.

Newcastle: Catterick, Williams, Bobo, Davey, Biggs, Miller, Charlton, Ovens, Walker, Ward, Swinson, Sorenson, Williamson, M. Wilson, Afu.
Replacements: Amesbury for Catterick (56), M. Tait for Davey (62), Shiels for Ovens (53), Vickers for Walker (70), Brooks for Ward (58), Welch for Williamson (53).
 
Harlequins: Chisholm, Drauniniu, Lowe, Luveniyali, Smith, Clegg, Dickson, Croall, Cairns, Lambert, Stevenson, Robson, York, McMillan, Guest.
Replacements: Lindsay-Haugue for Luveniyali (44), G. Williams for Dickson (65), Brooker for Croall (53), Marler for Cairns (53), Johnston for Lambert (53), Matthews for Robson (65), Wallace for McMillan (46).
 
Referee: G Garner (RFU).