100 Appearances

By Leipziger
December 1 2013

In front of the largest home crowd of the season so far, the Falcons turned in one of their worst performances under Dean Richards' leadership and were soundly beaten by a far better Harlequins side who won at Kingston Park for the first time since 2006.

The 9-35 result extends the Falcons’ tryless streak in the Premiership to over 400 minutes, with just 12 points scored in the last three league matches. In truth, Newcastle were just never in the game.

On his 100^th appearance in a Falcons jersey, Ally Hogg led out the home team who showed one change from the visit to Northampton last week, with Kieran Brookes starting in place of Oliver Tomaszczyk. Brookes lasted less than half an hour before limping off.

On Dean Richards’ first encounter with his former side since Bloodgate, who else but Tom Williams put Harlequins into the lead after ten minutes when the winger took what on first glance looked like a forward pass to race through the 22 and in for the opening try. The TMO confirmed that the pass had been legal, and Nick Evans kicked the conversion.

Phil Godman kicked a long-range penalty to get the Falcons on the scoreboard but Evans quickly returned the difference to seven points with a penalty of his own. Harlequins were in the ascendancy against the unimaginative Geordies, who wasted possession numerous times through pointless kicks and handling errors.

Mike Blair had the best chance of the opening half hour for the Falcons, tapping a quick penalty and legging it into the 22, only for the play to be called back by referee Andrew Small for no apparent reason.

Evans kicked another penalty before Godman sliced his second attempt wide, though the Scot was on target from just inside the Quins half on the half-hour.

In the final couple of minutes of the first half, Newcastle rallied and an atmosphere threatened to break out in the stands as Adam Powell and Richard Mayhew made gos for the line, but Quins held out to take a 6-13 lead into the dressing rooms.

If fans of the outclassed Falcons believed things could only get better after the interval, they were quite wrong. Within a couple of minutes Sam Smith was on the end of a big overlap on the Quins left and snuck in at the corner to increase the lead to 12 points, Evans failing to convert.

Godman knocked over a penalty and Ryan Shortland made a break into the Quins half but was turned over, and that was pretty much the last thing of interest in the game for home supporters from a positive point of view.

Harlequins went on the hunt for a bonus point and looked to be over on the left, just stretching for the line on the floor but the TMO decided that Shortland’s boot had held the ball up and Harlequins were awarded a five-metre scrum. From the set-play, Danny Care scurried through beside the posts. Evans kicked the conversion and though the scoreboard refused to recognise it until re-booted, the visitors were out of sight at 9-28.

The fourth try came with 12 minutes to go and when Smith found himself alone in the Falcons half and sprinted to the left corner, just evading the chasing Alex Tait. The conversion made the Londoners’ lead 26 points and nobody in the ground would have complained had Mr Small decided to call a halt to the game at that point.

The last ten minutes saw little of note until Rob Vickers was sin-binned with a couple of minutes to go for an infringement at a lineout, although replays suggested Scott Wilson had taken out a Harlequin in the air.

It compounded a day on which the officials did not endear themselves to the home crowd, but the referee might justifiably point out that it is not his fault that professional players did not get their basic skills right and never, in 80 minutes, looked likely to put together a move that could result in a try.