Falcons respond in style but miss bonus
THREE tries in an improved second-half performance at Stade play. Pierre-Fabre put New--castle into the qualifying spots for the knock-out stages.
Scrum-half Sam Stuart, full-back Tom Arscott and No.8 Josh Basham all scored as Falcons overturned a 10-9 half-time deficit, yet they made hardwork of what should have been a bonus-point victory.
But having bounced back from their first competitive defeat in 18 months, to Cardiff Blues last week, coach James Ponton was satisfied with the result.
“I’m very pleased overall with the way the lads went,” he said. “We had five guys making debuts, they all played well and it’s a great experience for them.
“Castres had a good start but the boys stuck in, it wasn’t easy out there. It was a great test, but we came through.
“We stuck to what we’d been practicing all week, about moving the ball one more pass away. We knew that would be the undoing of Castres, and it paid dividends in the end.”
With both teams making several changes and using the fixture to give gametime to young and second-string players, it was no surprise the tie was a slow burner.
The first chance of the game fell to the visiting Falcons with inside-centre Joel Matavesi making the initial break. He linked with Arscott, who side-stepped before finding wing Cooper Vuna who was stopped just short by Castres openside Kevin Kornath. Falcons did get the first points on the board after 15 minutes via the boot of flyhalf Brett Connon, who had missed an earlier attempt. With the wind at their backs, Newcastle were on the front foot but for all their field position and work-rate – led by back row Mark Wilson – a lack of accuracy meant they failed to execute and Castres took the lead against the run of play.
With quick hands from a scrum in Newcastle’s half, 19-year-old full-back Clément Clavieres received the ball and broke through the midfield and offloaded to debutant wing Antoine Bouzerand to dot down.
Three minutes later and the whippet-like pair combined again providing quick ball for Clavieres to outfox Pete Lucock with a show-and-go before Bouzerand got the better of Vuna to slide over the line. Arscott went close in reply but his 30-metre run was stopped by a Clavieres tackle putting him into touch. Connon then kept Falcons in it with two from the boot just before halftime. With the risk of losing the game putting either side out of the competition, Falcons held off a strong Castres restart. And as the young home side – with a third of their players under 20 – showed their inexperience, Newcastle scored 17 unanswered points.
Ex-Richmond star Stuart scored for the second week in a row, rounding off a move which saw debutants Chidera Obonna and Zach Kerr linking up to give the No.9 space down the right.
Replacement Philip van der Walt held off a Castres attack and some good vision from Connon got the ball wide and Arscott fended off a defender to score in the corner.
Falcons could smell a bonus-point after prop Alexis Decaux was sinbinned for persistent offending, but after Basham scored for Falcons it was Castres who had the final say. Wing Bastien Guillemin intercepted a flat pass and offloaded to Vilimoni Botitu to score at the death for the former French champions.