Victory in Bristol finale can secure spot in top seven
NEWCASTLE Falcons will head to relegated Bristol next weekend believing a win can clinch them the chance of qualifying for next season’s European Champions Cup.
Other results will have to go Newcastle’s way for them to secure seventh place in the Premiership and a possible play-off for European Champions Cup qualification.
First they must win at Bristol, though, and after Friday night’s 16-14 win over Worcester at Kingston Park director of rugby Dean Richards believes they can.
He said: “We can still finish seventh and that is what the goal is next week at Bristol – but they will be dangerous.
“They have absolutely nothing to lose and that is when they will be at their most dangerous.
“We went for it at the end of the game against Worcester. We had to score tries and we had to go for it and it paid off.
“We were not at our best in some respects but we looked quite comfortable in defence and we have a class act in Sonatane Takulua.”
Takulua touched down and then added the all-important conversion to seal what could prove to be a priceless win and one which moved Newcastle to within four points of Northampton.
Worcester dominated the first half but they bombed at least two gilt-edged try-scoring opportunities and found themselves 6-0 down at the break.
Bryce Heem should have grabbed the game’s opening try when he was on the end of a free flowing move but he was hammered into touch on the corner flag by a crunching Sinoti Sinoti tackle.
Newcastle came under real pressure when scrum-half Francois Hougard put in a big tackle on number eight Callum Chick as he tried to pick up at the base of the scrum.
It led to a Warriors scrum five metres from the Newcastle line but they wasted the chance when their front row were penalised for dropping the ball.
Back came Worcester with a line-out drive in the Falcons’ 22 but flanker Mark Wilson came right through the maul to get his hands on the ball and win a penalty.
Warriors’ wing Perry Humphreys squandered another great chance when Ryan Mills chipped over the Falcons’ defence and Wynand Olivier collected the ball close to corner flag and popped it up for Humphreys - but he lost it as he went to touch down. Newcastle were finding it hard to handle Worcester at the breakdown but their driving maul had Worcester in trouble.
When they kicked a penalty to the corner they came close to scoring, wining another penalty in the 32nd minute which Takulua kicked for 3-0.
The scrum-half split the