Dombrandt breaks Falcons’ resistance
Harlequins leapt ahead of Leicester and into fifth place in the Gallagher Premiership table with a convincing victory over bottom-placed Newcastle Falcons last night.
Flanker Alex Dombrandt and replacement Francis Saili scored the tries to give the hosts a third win of the league season at The Stoop.
Quins were on a revenge mission having lost a close Premiership Rugby Cup encounter to their rivals a fortnight ago, while Falcons were hoping to repeat that act and finally ignite their miserable league campaign to date.
Former England man Toby Flood moved from the bench to the No12 jersey when Jonny Williams was ruled out shortly before kick-off. It also meant a replacements’ spot for former Quins man Tim Swiel.
The opening half saw Quins on top for most of the time but make hard work of carving out a 10-0 lead. The Stoop resembled Emergency – Ward 10 more than a rugby field at times with several players requiring treatment after painful collisions.
Falcons had three players injured in the opening 10 minutes and, one of them, fly-half Joel Hodgson, badly damaged his left leg.
He was removed from the action on a stretcher after receiving lengthy treatment and replaced by Swiel.
Alex Tait was fortunate to escape punishment when pushing scrumhalf Charlie Mulchrone into Quins team-mate Aaron Morris who was leaping to catch a high ball. Wing Morris was left winded after crashing to the earth but referee JP Doyle decided to keep his yellow card in his pocket.
It took 22 minutes before the constant wave of Harlequins jerseys finally conjured some points on the board – and that just a penalty from Marcus Smith after Falcons were guilty of cynical foul play at a ruck to stop the hosts camped near the line.
Newcastle had played the opening half-hour with backs against the wall but managed to finally break from their shackles and gain some territory inside the Quins half.
Then it was the hosts’ turn to lose a player through injury as Morris was left concussed after a tackle and had to be helped off the field.
Flood missed a chance to level things up and he was soon regretting it as Quins finally managed to find a gap in what had been a thick green-and-white Falcons defensive wall just two minutes before the interval. It came from an unlikely source as Dombrandt pounced to intercept George Mcguigan’s pass and run 40 yards unchallenged for the opening try which Smith converted.
Falcons’ hopes of a revival lifted with Quins reduced to 14 men shortly into the second half.
Prop Lewis Boyce had already been warned about dropping the scrum, and when he did it a second time referee Doyle produced a yellow card.
However, it failed to stop Quins increasing their lead courtesy of a Smith penalty.
Back to full strength, Saili was on hand to take centre Ben Tapuai’s fine run and offload, and dive over the Falcons line for a second try converted by James Lang and a 20-0 lead.
Lock Andrew Davidson ran from the back of a ruck to give Falcons a consolation try, converted by Flood, but it was too little too late for the basement club.