Blues are demolished as Falcons fly to top

NEWCASTLE Falcons crushed Cardiff Blues to top their pool in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

The Falcons followed up a thrilling 53-41 victory at Wasps with a nine-try demolition of a young Cardiff side.

Joel Hodgson gave another assured display at fly half, scoring a try and kicking five conversions as Sinoti Sinoti came up with a double strike while Alex Tait, Michael Young, Mark Wilson and Gary Graham also crossed and young winger Adam Radwan, who grabbed two in Coventry, scored another breathtaking try.

The Blues also conceded a penalty try and had George Earle, captaining them for the first time, sent to the sin-bin by referee Anthony Woodthorpe as they took down the maul, leading to the penalty try.

Falcons defence coach John Wells was happy with a clean sheet as well his side scoring nine tries.

“We kept our shape and as the game went on we grew stronger. We could have got sloppy but we kept our discipline.”

Cardiff gave as good as they got in the opening 20 minutes and it was Hodgson who broke the deadlock with a lovely inside break for Micky Young to score.

It sparked the home side to move up a gear and for Sinoti to smash through, skip two tackles and score. Hodgson converted.

The Falcons piled on the pressure and a lineout drive resulted in that penalty try and a sin-binning for Earle in the 34th minute. The loss of Earle was costly as Newcastle repeated the driving lineout for flanker Mark Wilson to score.

Just after the break Radwan’s stepping run left defenders floundering and Hodgson converted for 31-0.

Three tries in 12 minutes followed: Sinoti grabbed his second from a Hodgson cross kick, then Tait swapped passes with man of the match Josh Matavesi to score in the corner, and Hodgson jinked over and converted to make it 50-0.

Gary Graham ploughed over from close range in the last minute, Hodgson kicking his fifth conversion for 57-0.