How to win a game without entering your opponents’ 22, is how the video of this one might be labelled. Or maybe how to lose one despite doing the opposite. It is easy to guess which way the Newcastle archivist will lean. Ally Hogg, one of only two of the Falcons’ pack in their 30s – indeed, not in their early 20s – wore a face like thunder after this defeat to Harlequins.
“We created all the chances,” he said. “Harlequins never looked like scoring. We looked like scoring five or six, but we just blew the chances. If only we could say we were not clinical – it wasn’t even that. We just didn’t hold on to the ball. If we’d gone through a few more phases we’d have scored points. We beat ourselves, and that’s the frustrating thing. We cut them to pieces. I can’t actually remember them being in our 22.”
Forget missing out on the losing bonus point, Dean Richards, Newcastle’s director of rugby, was angry they had missed out on the win. In fact, he wanted a try-scoring bonus point as well and felt they should have had one. While that may be stretching it a little, there is no doubt that Newcastle, playing a more vibrant brand of rugby this season, left a lot of points out there. Sinoti Sinoti was a menace with the ball in hand and made yards every time he found himself in that happy situation.
And on the other wing Alesana Tuilagi went clean through Marland Yarde, the England wing, three or four times. But Tuilagi also spilt countless balls (as, for that matter, did Yarde), and therein lay Newcastle’s problem – making those line-breaks count.
The one try Newcastle did manage was registered by Tuilagi just before half-time, but even that had to be referred. The big man stormed to the line with Mike Brown hanging off him, but the ball spilled out of his grasp at the crucial moment. Fortunately, the TMO felt he had grounded it for a split second before it did, but the decision was a delicate one and could have gone the other way.
Still, one try was the least the Falcons deserved for their enterprise. But, if they could have been two or three tries to the good in the first half, they tailed off in the second. Harlequins dominated that without ever progressing much beyond the 10-metre line. It mattered not. Newcastle could do nothing right as far as the referee was concerned and so Tim Swiel, over for four months to cover Harlequins’ injury crisis at fly-half, was able to slot four penalties in 13 second-half minutes. And that was that.
After the fortnight they have had in Europe, though, Quins can be forgiven for this flat performance. They will be reinforced when they entertain Northampton on Saturday across the road at Twickenham. Nick Evans should be back, as should Nick Easter and Joe Marler. Danny Care and Dave Ward, who both lifted their tempo in the final quarter, will start. Chris Robshaw will not, but he is expected to return to action two weeks later.
“We will hit a purple patch,” said Conor O’Shea, the director of rugby at Harlequins. “We always have and we will. We just have to stay in the fight until then with wins like this.”
Harlequins Brown; Yarde, Hopper, Lowe, Tikoirotuma (Monye, 50); Swiel, Dickson (Care, 61); Lambert, Gray (Ward, 48), Sinckler (Collier, 48), Matthews (Twomey, 76), Robson (capt), Trayfoot, Clifford, Chisholm.
Pens Swiel 5.
Newcastle Hammersley (Cato, 27); Sinoti, Powell, Socino, Alesana Tuilagi; Catterick (Andy Tuilagi, 68), Blair (Tipuna, 65); Vickers (Fry, 65), McGuigan (Lawson, 65), S Wilson, Green, Barrow (Thompson, 31), M Wilson, Welch (capt), Hogg.
Try Alesana Tuilagi. Con Socino.
Referee M Carley. Att 13,658.
