Falcons flying high, but Dean stays cool
DEAN Richards insists Newcastle Falcons’ league position is the last thing on his mind despite Saturday’s 28-10 triumph at Harlequins propelling them into the top four of the Aviva Premiership.
The Falcons ran in 21 second-half points to achieve their first league win at the Twickenham Stoop in 18 years, Sinoti Sinoti celebrating his new contract by scoring Newcastle’s fourth and final try.
There was nothing to separate the sides at half-time as an early James Horwill try was cancelled out by Callum Chick at the other end.
However, shortly after the restart Kyle Cooper and Chris Harris went over in quick succession for the visitors before Sinoti followed them over the whitewash – sealing a first league victory in south-west London for the first time since September 2000. Afterwards, director of rugby Richards said: “Where we end is where we end up, and that is not something I spend any time worrying about.
“People are only human and will have one eye on the fact we have climbed into the top four.
“That is great and I am not pretending it is not pleasing – but the only thing which matters to me is the fact we give our best performance every week.
“All I care about is the fact the guys perform as well as they can and then we will see where that takes us.
“What we have is a very hardworking squad with a huge amount of ability and we are only just starting to see the rewards of all the painstaking effort which has been put in over the past five or six years.
“This was a very pleasing result, especially with a bonus point.
“However, we will put it to bed now and move on to Gloucester away next weekend.”
An excellent touch-finder from Marcus Smith led to the game’s first try on seven minutes, Horwill barging over at the second time of asking following a good offload by Dave Ward, Smith converting.
With 10 minutes gone, both sides were reduced to 10 men as the hosts’ James Chisholm and Falcons’ Nili Latu were sent to the sin bin, the number eights in an off-the-ball altercation.
Newcastle dominated possession in and around Harlequins’ fivemetre line, but the home side held firm.
However, after Harlequins hooker Joe Gray was sin-binned for collapsing a maul, Newcastle were level as Chick inched over the line following a sixth Falcons’ line-out, Flood then converting.
The hosts started the second half on the front foot and Smith put the hosts back ahead with a penalty.
But the Falcons were not behind for long and after Simon Hammersley was held up over the line following a fine Josh Matavesi break, Cooper barrelled his way over.
Flood converted to put Newcastle 14-10 ahead with 30 minutes left and moments later the visitors were further ahead as Harris brushed off Luke Wallace to dot down.
Veteran fly-half Flood again added the extras before being replaced by Joel Hodgson, who made no mistake with his conversion on 66 minutes after Sinoti beat Chisholm one-onone on the left wing to wrap up Falcons’ bonus point.