Clegg is saint and sinner
HARLEQUINS 18 NEwCASTLE 14
NEWCASTLE hearts were broken by two late penalties from Ben Botica.
For much of the game, the visitors were the better side. They were dominant in the scrum but could only manage one try through Alex Tait.
Rory Clegg kicked three penalties but crucially missed three which would have given his side a vital win.
Falcons made a bright start but it was Quins who should have taken the lead after five minutes only for Botica to fail with a straightforward penalty attempt.
Minutes later, Botica appeared to be given another chance from a similar position but Quins opted for an attacking line-out and were immediately rewarded when, following strong runs from Jordan Turner-Hall and Ugo Monye, Lindsay-Hague was able to stroll through a large gap in the visitors’ defence for the opening try.
The next 10 minutes saw Newcastle build up a head of steam, with centre Jamie Helleur twice breaching the home defence.
But after captain Will Welch was sin-binned for dragging down a maul Smith forced his way over from close range for a try which Botica converted before Clegg put his side on the scoreboard with a well struck penalty.
Clegg hit a post with his next effort and Newcastle went into the break unlucky to be behind.
With the wind in their favour, Newcastle hopes were boosted by two successful penalties from Clegg before a third rebounded back off a post.
Falcons went ahead with 10 minutes to go. Noah Cato flew down the wing and Scott Lawson made a crucial burst to maintain the pressure, which ended with Tait just having enough impetus to squeeze over the line.
Clegg missed the conversion and it proved costly. With five minutes to go, Lawson was penalised and yellow-carded. Botica kicked the resulting penalty and another one with the last kick of the match to secure a lucky win.