By George Davis
Newcastle Falcons had their run of defeats extended to 23 games, after a 28-14 loss to Harlequins in the second round of the Premiership. Tries from John Hawkins and Ben Redshaw weren’t enough to travel back North, as the Falcons came away without any points from the Twickenham Stoop.
Quins tries from Nathan Jibulu, Will Evans, Leigh Halfpenny and Will Porter allowed the Londoners to record a bonus point win. Newcastle’s last win came against Caldy in October 2023, equaling Worcester’s losing run from the 2013/14 season.
It’s clear Steve Diamond fired up his travelling Newcastle side after an eight hour drive up on the Friday, the Falcons finding space all over the Harlequins defence early on. Adam Radwan put on his roller skates to glide through Quin’s defence and go metres out from the tryline.
Jamie Blamire hit a nice line before offloading to find John Hawkins who got his first of the season for the northerners. Ill-discipline from Steve Diamonds side handed the opportunity back to the home side shortly after though and Nathan Jibulu made them pay.
A well worked lineout move from the hosts saw Will Evans come back to the short side, he pulled in the last defender and allowed Jibulu to go over for a try on his first start for the quartered side. It was a similar story in the middle of the park again almost 10 minutes later, Harlequins went to the corner again to put their maul game to use.
Quins broke off and were brought down just short of the tryline, Will Evans burrowed his way over a couple of phases after to put the Londoners in the lead. The other new man for Quins on the wing was desperate to get involved and had his opportunity just shy of the half hour mark.
Cassius Cleaves came off his left wing to pop up on the opposite side of the field, showcasing extreme pace to get round two defenders and step another before he found Leigh Halfpenny in support to dot down.
The winger started the second half like the first with a great burst of speed to get past a couple of defenders. His ball inside then found Oscar Beard who then passed inside to a supporting Will Porter to extend the home side’s lead.
It would soon get worse for Steve Diamonds side as Elliot Obatoyinbo was yellow carded for a high tackle on Leigh Halfpenny, the Falcon’s full back saved from the red card by a late change in direction from Halfpenny. But Newcastle did not lie down and that was in part thanks to 18-year-old scrum half Joe Davis coming on.
The youngster lit up the Falcons attack (With the help of Sammy Arnold) and created some real front foot momentum and caused problems for the home team. A few phases later and Ben Redshaw was the beneficiary of their input, as the replacement went over with little resistance from inside the 22.
Harlequins: 28
Tries: 4 (Jibulu 14’, W.Evans 23’, Halfpenny 32’, Porter 41’)
Conversions: 4 (Smith 15’, 24’, 33’, 42’)
Penalties: 0
Drop Goals: 0
Yellow Cards: 0
Red Cards:0
Harlequins: 1. Fin Baxter, 2. Nathan Jibulu 3. Titi Lamositele 4.J oe Launchbury 5. Stephan Lewies © 6. Jack Kenningham 7. Will Evans 8. Chandler Cunningham-South 9. Will Porter 10. Marcus Smith 11. Cassius Cleaves 12. Lennox Anyanwu 13. Luke Northmore 14. Nick David 15. Leigh Halfpenny.
Replacements: 16. Jack Walker 17. Wyn Jones 18. Simon Kerrod 19 .Irne Herbst 20. Dino Lamb 21. Danny Care 22. Jarrod Evans 23. Oscar Beard.
Newcastle Falcons: 14
Tries: 2 (Hawkins 5’, Redshaw 63’)
Conversions: 2 (Grayson 6’, 64’)
Penalties: 0
Drop Goals: 0
Yellow Card: 1 (Obatoyinbo 46’)
Red Cards: 0
Newcastle Falcons: 1. Adam Brocklebank 2 Jamie Blamire 3. Richard Palframan 4 John Hawkins 5. Kiran Mcdonald 6. Philip Van Der Walt 7. Tom Gordon 8. Callum Chick (C)9 Sam Staurt 10. Ethan Grayson 11. Ben Stevenson 12. Sammy Arnold 13. Connor Doherty 14. Adam Radwan 15. Elliot Obatoyinbo.
Replacements: 16. Ollie Fletcher 17. Luan de Bruin 18. Murrary McCallum 19. Freddie Lockwood 20. Adam Scott 21. Joe Davis 22. Ben Redshaw 23. Louis Brown