Play-off push gets a boost at Kingsholm
DEAN Richards saluted his Newcastle Falcons players after they strengthened their play-off credentials with a valuable one-point victory at Gloucester.
The Falcons director of rugby was ‘delighted’ with the win at Kingsholm, a result that pushed them up to third in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday night.
Tries from Ally Hogg and Micky Young plus 11 points from the boot of stand-in fly-half Joel Hodgson were enough to secure a vital win.
It could have been a very different story if Gloucester had scored a conversion with just three minutes left to play.
Jason Woodward, David Halaifonua, Mark Atkinson and Lewis Ludlow scored the hosts’ tries but crucially failed to convert any.
The Falcons slipped back down to fourth after Wasps’ victory over London Irish yesterday afternoon.
But after the late drama of Billy Twelvetrees’ missed conversion on Saturday, Richards (right) was just keen to savour his own side’s hardfought result.
“I’m obviously delighted,” he told www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk.
“Considering how much possession Gloucester had and the fact they scored four tries, I’m happy we won.
“We got our kicks apart from one which hit the post, they missed theirs and sometimes that’s just the way it goes.”
Gloucester made a bad start when Ruan Ackermann dropped the kick-off to concede early pressure and allow Falcons to take an early lead when Hodgson kicked a fourth-minute penalty.
Hodgson was a late replacement for Toby Flood, the former England fly-half out due to illness.
Gloucester scored the first try of the game after 14 minutes when Woodward skilfully kicked ahead to collect and score. It took less than five minutes for the visitors to respond with a try. Young neatly gathered an upand-under before freeing Hogg for an unopposed 22-metre run to the line. Hodgson’s conversion gave Falcons a 10-5 lead before home wing Halaifonua was sinbinned for a high challenge on Sinoti Sinoti. The Falcons wing went off for a head-injury assessment and Halaifonua received lengthy treatment before Hodgson kicked the penalty. Newcastle could easily have scored again when the home side’s wastefulness with the ball nearly gifted Vereniki Goneva a chance. Sinoti failed his assessment and was unable to return while Newcastle failed to add any more points to the scoreboard before Halaifonua returned to the field of play. But Hodgson’s third penalty gave his side a 16-5 interval lead.
Eight minutes after the restart, the hosts reduced the arrears with their best move of the match.
Sustained handling and a welltimed pass from Woodward gave Halaifonua the opportunity to brush aside Falcons full-back Simon Hammersley to score.
But Newcastle responded two minutes later as they secured a turnover for Young to dummy his way through and then touch down.
Falcons looked in control when they led 21-10 with less than 15 minutes remaining, but the visitors – who were without Rob Vickers after his wife gave birth on Friday – looked increasingly unsteady and eventually Atkinson powered over.
With four minutes to go, replacement Ludlow finished off a driving line-out but Twelvetrees’ wideangled conversion went astray.
Their third victory in a row, the Falcons have now recorded 11 wins in the league this season – a feat they last managed in 2002.