Newcastle went top of the Premiership with a narrow win over Harlequins at
Kingston Park.
In front of an 8,000-plus crowd, the Falcons made hard work of it against a
Quins side that came close to winning the match in injury time.
Matt Burke, making his home debut, clattered through on his first touch to set
the ball up perfectly but it was the drive of Stuart Grimes and Michael
Stephenson who forced a second minute penalty which Wilkinson missed narrowly.
He missed again in the sixth minute when Mike McCarthy and Stephenson got on
the end of a Jamie Noon break and Andre Vos was over the ball and lucky to avoid
the Sinn - they were two uncharacteristic errors even in the blustery wind.
Quins got away with a series of penalties without more than a few words from
the referee and Newcastle lost Mark Mayerhofler after 15 minutes with a leg
injury as Wilkinson finally got it right with a penalty to make it 3-0.
Quins swept into the lead when Jeremy Staunton kicked a penalty and Gavin
Duffy broke through two tackles and passed inside for George Harder to score.
Staunton's conversion made it 10-3 against the run of play.
Newcastle were finding it hard to make headway in midfield with Quins up quick
and playing it right on the margin for offside but they were caught in the 28th
minute and Wilkinson made it 10-6 and then McCarthy was lucky to escape the
sin-bin when he went over the ball and Staunton kicked the penalty.
Luke Sherriff was finally sinbinned in first half injury time after enormous
Falcons pressure and Wilkinson made it 13-9 with the penalty.
But straight from the restart, Newcastle's midfield defence was awful and
Staunton sailed through and Gavin Duffy scored easily.
Newcastle mounted a furious riposte with three line-out drives and Colin
Charvis was held up over the line.
Simon Miall was sinbinned in the 51st minute for persistent offside and
Wilkinson made it 18-12 with the penalty.
Wilkinson spurned a kick at goal to find touch in the corner and Newcastle
battered away at the line with Charvis, Peel and Gross close.
And, when Quins killed the ball as Gross went for the try, referee Sean Davey
gave a penalty try and Wilkinson's conversion put Newcastle 19-18 in front.
The home side had the squeeze on in the scrum and a penalty for taking it down
saw Wilkinson kick his fifth penalty in the 71st minute.
Neil McCarthy was sinbinned in the 74th minute for not rolling away in the
tackle.
That put Newcastle under severe pressure and Staunton reduced the lead to just
one point with a penalty in the 78th minute.
Staunton had the chance to win it for Quins in the fifth minute of injury time
with another penalty but he pushed it wide.
Teams
Newcastle: Peel, Long, Ward, Grimes, Hamilton, McCarthy, Charvis, Sititi, Burke, May, Noon, Mayerhofler, Stephenson, J. Wilkinson, Charlton.
Replacements: Thompson for Long (61), Isaacson for Ward (41), Gross for Hamilton (41), Walder for Mayerhofler (19),
Grindal for Charlton (57).
Not Used: Taione, Shaw.
Tries: Penalty.
Cons: J. Wilkinson.
Pens: J. Wilkinson 5.
Harlequins: Jones, Tiatia, Dawson, Rudzki, Miall, Sheriff, Vos, Diprose, Duffy, Monye, Harder, Reay, Keogh, Staunton, So'oialo.
Replacements: Worsley for Jones (61), Winters for Miall (61).
Not Used: Hayter, Horstmann, Molitika, Dunne, Williams.
Tries: Harder, Duffy.
Cons: Staunton.
Pens: Staunton 3.
Att: 8,706
Ref: Sean Davey (West Sussex).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook