31 - 26HT -

Kingston Park
Att TBC
Fri 10 Dec 21

Highlights & Report | Newcastle Falcons 31-26 Worcester Warriors

Warriors opened their European Challenge Cup campaign with an agonising defeat but two bonus points from another brave performance at Kingston Park.

Having drawn 24-24 in the Gallagher Premiership two weeks ago there was again very little to split the sides who scored four tries apiece.

In the end the difference proved to be 77th minute penalty from Newcastle’s replacement fly-half Joel Hodgson and a number of missed opportunities in a match of very fine margins.

But points on the road are hard to come by in European competition and the two gained here may well prove significant if Warriors go on to reach the knockout stages.

Although weather conditions were not quite as severe as they were two weeks ago when Storm Arwen forced a postponement, the match was again played in numbing cold but both teams did their bit to warm the crowd by playing enterprising rugby.

Warriors showed composure and character to recover from conceding a try right from the kick-off when they failed to secure the kick, the ball bounced between players and popped up nicely for Newcastle centre Max Wright who nipped in with barely ten seconds on the clock.

Warriors were level again within six minutes when they were awarded a penalty try after they kicked a penalty to the corner, won the lineout and Newcastle collapsed the driving maul with their captain Will Welch sin-binned as the culprit.

A brilliant counter-attack, started and finished by Duhan van der Merwe with big carries from Kyle Hatherell, Ted Hill and Niall Annett in between, was converted by Billy Searle but Newcastle were soon back on level terms when Warriors were unable to clear their lines and former England full-back Mike Brown crossed for a try that Haydon-Wood improved.

Warriors responded with a well-taken try of their own with Alex Hearle intercepting just inside his own half then galloping away before he slipped the ball inside to the supporting Harri Doel who dotted down with Searle adding the extras. Doel had only just taken the field as a temporary replacement while Francois Venter was having a head injury assessment.

Newcastle had a try disallowed for blocking but they drew level again right on the stoke of half-time when hooker George McGuigan went over under the posts after a series of close-range attacks.

Ollie Lindsay-Hague crossed for a well-worked try seven minutes into the second half which Haydon-Wood also converted but Warriors looked dangerous with ball in hand and struck again when Will Chudley crossed for his fourth try of the season from a clever lineout move.

Fin Smith, who had just come on as a replacement, was unable to add the conversion that would have levelled the scores again.

Instead Hodgson found the target with a woozy-looking penalty that put Newcastle five points clear and frustrated Warriors push for the try they needed to secure another point and, possibly, three.

Warriors | 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Alex Hearle, 13 Oli Morris, 12 Francois Venter (CC) (Doel 28-38), 11 Duhan van der Merwe (Doel 63), 10 Billy Searle (Smith 66), 9 Will Chudley, 1 Ethan Waller (Owen 75), 2 Niall Annett (Baldwin 26), 3 Jay Tyack (Judge 63), 4 Joe Batley, 5 Andrew Kitchener, 6 Kyle Hatherell (Lewis 66-72) (Vailanu 72), 7 Ted Hill (CC), 8 Sione Vailanu (Kvesic 66).

Replacements | 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Kai Owen, 18 Christian Judge, 19 Matt Kvesic, 20 Sam Lewis, 21 Ollie Wynn, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Harri Doel.

Timeline
18 secs | Wright try 5-0
1m | Haydon-Wood con 7-0
7m | Penalty try 7-7
16m | van der Merwe try 7-12
17m | Searle con 7-14
24m | Brown try 12-14
25m | Haydon-Wood con 14-14
30m | Doel try 14-19
31m | Searle con 14-21
40m | McGuigan try 19-21
40m | Haydon-Wood con 21-21
47m | Lindsay-Hague try 26-21
48m | Haydon-Wood con 28-21
66m | Chudley try 28-26
77m | Hodgson pen 31-26

Competition: EPCR Challenge Cup
Venue: Kingston Park
Referee:
Game Type:
Fixture Round:
Attendance:

Squads

To be announced…

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