Jonny Wilkinson is carrying a poor Newcastle side on his world class shoulders
but even his valiant one-man display failed to save his side from a crushing
defeat which should have been heavier.
The England star did his superlative best but there were simply too many
cracks to paper over.
And Wilkinson even showed that he was feeling the pressure, knocking-on in
front of his own line, to present Harlequins with a try which effectively
finished the match as a contest after just half an hour.
Harlequins atoned for the chances they had squandered earlier with a pushover
try for props Laurent Gomez which fly-half David Slemen converted to stretch the
lead to 18-6.
Quins had failed to capitalise fully after being gifted the best of possible
starts courtesy of Wilkinson's brother Mark.
The 25-year-old centre, plucked from division three this season as Newcastle
tried in vain to plug the gaps left by the departure of several famous
international names, paid for his horrendous error after just 42 seconds.
When the lesser-known Wilkinson dropped a high pass behind his own line, Quins
flanker Pat Sanderson gratefully touched down.
And although Slemen missed the first conversion, he landed three penalties to
Jonny Wilkinson's two to ensure his side led 21-6 at half-time.
They would have been out of sight had they not passed up a succession of first
half chances.
Slemen opted to try a drop-kick dash and missed - with players outside him and
Newcastle stretched, centre Viliame Satale and full-back Nathan Williams both
ruined potential scoring moves by dropping passes and then a crossfield kick
from Sleman bounced away from right wing Matt Moore with no Newcastle player
within yards.
Then, with Newcastle on the rack Harlequins captain Jason Leonard chose to
offer Slemen a close-range penalty attempt instead of taking a tap and the
fly-half was again off target.
It briefly looked as though the one-man Jonny Wilkinson show might enable
Newcastle to force Quins to pay for their generosity at the start of the second
half.
Wilkinson then ran 20 yards to touch down before adding a conversion.
But despite their young skipper's efforts, Newcastle soon looked out of their
depth again.
Their defence fell apart with Harlequins number eight Tony Diprose forcing his
way over for a 56th minute try, England centre Will Greenwood, returning to the
Harlequins side following the death of his new-born son, received huge applause
as he ran in unchallenged eight minutes later and two minutes after that left
wing Ben Gollings sent scrum-half Nick Duncombe in for a simple try.
Full-back Williams took over the kicking duties to convert the last two.
But still Wilkinson would not give up, showing his vision with a sublime
crossfield kick straight in to the arms of left wing Jamie Noon who placed the
ball over the try line.
Wilkinson landed the conversion to maintain his 100 kicking record and take
his personal tally to 18 points.
But Newcastle were breached again when Harlequins hooker Tani Fuga scored
their sixth try in injury time with Williams again converting.
Harlequins:
Tries: Sanderson, Gomez, Diprose, Greenstock,
Duncombe, Fuga.
Cons: D. Slemen, M. Williams 3.
Pens: D. Slemen 3.
Harlequins: M. Williams, Moore, Greenwood, Satala, Gollings,
D. Slemen, Duncombe, Leonard, Fuga, Gomez, Davison, Codling,
Tiatia, Sanderson, Diprose.
Not Used: Rudzki, Starr, Evans, Sheriff, Bemand, Jewell,
Greenstock.
Newcastle:
Tries: J. Wilkinson, Noon.
Cons: J. Wilkinson 2.
Pens: J. Wilkinson 3.
Newcastle: Botham, Noon, May, M. Wilkinson, Jones,
J. Wilkinson, Charlton, Ward, Brotherstone, Hurter, Hamilton,
Grimes, Dunbar, Devonshire, Arnold.
Not Used: Grindal, Isaacson, Godman, Dowson, Vyvyan, Thompson,
Otuvaka.
Att: 7,923
Ref: Steve Leyshon (RFU).
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