Match action
DEAN Richards’ gift for team-building was underlined at Kingsholm last night as his Newcastle side weathered a late Gloucester barrage to end their unbeaten home run in the Premiership.
It lifted the Falcons to third in the table, and was a significant boost to their prospects of a landmark top four finish this season.
The sixth away win of the season for Newcastle was testament to their defensive grit and collective resolve in a cut-and-thrust affair which saw Gloucester within sight of victory after scoring their fourth try through flanker Lewis Ludlow four minutes from time.
As replacement kicker Billy Twelvetrees lined-up the kick from the right touchline Gloucester had a chance to claim the spoils, but as his attempt slid just just wide they had to make do with two bonus points – with their own hopes making the top four dented.
Newcastle, who braved the snows to travel down on Friday, put down their marker with tries either side of the break by Ally Hogg and Mickey Young, who was a driving force at scrum-half.
They also made light of losing fly-half Toby Flood with food poisening, with his replacement, Joel Hodgson, rising to the occasion. Hodgson’s four from five goal-kicking tally was ultimately the difference between the teams, with Billy Burns also failing to convert Gloucester’s first three tries.
To be fair to Burns two were wide out on a wet pitch, but the miss of a more straightforward conversion after Mark Atkinson’s try 15 minutes from time which left Gloucester 21-15 in arrears was costly.
Newcastle settled quickly and took the lead with an early Hodgson penalty. Gloucester responded by scoring the opening try initiated by Willi Heinz’s pass on the blindside to Jason Woodward. With only a few inches to work in the fullback’s grubber down the touchline was precision, and he darted past the Newcastle cover to dot down.
Enter Young. The Falcons scrum-half set Gloucester on their heels by plucking a wicked box-kick by Heinz from the sky just inside his own half, and skipping past Fraser Balmain and Rapava Ruskin before sending Ally Hogg in unopposed.
Hodgson’s conversion made it 10-5 to the Falcons, and when David Halaifonua was sin-binned for putting Sinoti Sinoti out of the game with a mistimed high tackle, the resulting penalty stretched the lead to 13-5.
Hodgson added another on the stroke of half-time and Newcastle’s 16-5 lead was well-earned, but when Woodward’s in-out gave Halaifonua the chance to redeem himself he smashed over.
The cut-and-thrust continued with Young darting through after a breakdown steal by Will Welch made it 21-10 with half an hour to play. Gloucester mounted pressure, and with young flankers Jake Polledri and Freddie Clarke leading the charge, scored twice more with Atkinson getting outside Maxime Mermoz and Ludlow scoring from a textbook line-out drive.
However, it was not enough to dislodge a Newcastle side that a few years ago could not get a win on the road for love nor money.