A great defensive performance from Falcons wasn’t enough to keep them in the game, as Bristol put 4 tries past them. James Williams, Siva Naulago and Max Malins all scored for the visitors, whilst Brett Connon was the only scorer for Newcastle.
BY HARVEY ALLEN
Join the RUCK’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
Newcastle oversaw debuts for centre-partnership Connor Doherty and Sammy Arnold, whilst Scrum-half Joe Davis was placed on the bench at just 18 years old. They were without summer signings Cameron Nield and Kieran Wilkinson, who were both injured in their pre-season fixture away to Sale Sharks. Philip Van der Walt was a late drop out due to illness.
Captain Steven Luatua returned for Bristol after missing pre-season, but missing Bill Mata, their new arrival from Edinburgh, who suffered a hamstring injury that needed operation, in a pre-season friendly. Harry Thacker was named in the squad, but withdrew with sickness.
Williams opened the scoring in the 6th minute for the visitors, breaking through the line from short range, helped by an offload from James Dun. AJ MacGinty missed his first chance of scoring.
Both teams were incredibly unlucky not to score, at least several times. The Falcons failed in their bid to outmuscle the Bears’ defensive unit on a number of occasions, whilst they were able to neutralise Bristol’s couple of fast-paced counterattacks.
Connon finally got the Falcons off the mark, kicking a short range penalty to end the first half, cutting the lead down to just two points.
Bristol started the second half all guns blazing, and were rewarded through the hands of Naulago 50 minutes in, finishing off a few phases of short, powerful carries, with an acrobatic finish into the corner. MacGinty got his name on the scoreboard, converting.
The pressure was being heavily applied on Newcastle, missing their own lineouts, but were able to deny Bristol twice on the line. Their defence was starting to be worked very hard.
Bristol added their third in the 63rd minute through Malins. MacGinty pulled it back to the fullback, hitting a diagonal line to break the line from close. MacGinty was also rewarded with another conversion, taking the gap out to 16 points.
Malins closed out the game with his second, and gave his side the bonus point. A quick attack took Bristol into the 22, before a crossfield kick provided by MacGinty was caught by the fullback over the try line, and dotted down to secure the Bristol win.
Newcastle had last minute hope of their first try of the season, Louis Brown appeared to dot down the ball in the corner, but was ruled in touch by TMO, with a try-saving tackle by Malins.
Bristol left Kingston Park with all five points, whilst the hosts would have to settle with none. This extends Newcastle’s losing streak in the league to 22 matches, not having won a Premiership match since round 21 of the 2022/23 season.
Tonight was a game of missed opportunities for Steve Diamond’s side, as he commented: “Yeah, I think certainly we weren’t the same team in the second half, that’s part of the problem I’m going to have to unpick. We were competitive in the first half, but perhaps didn’t take our opportunities. We were on their line two or three times and couldn’t get over.
“Secondly it wasnt fitness,you know, we were full of errors, we only gave eight penalties away in the whole game against 16, that generally tells you that you’re in a scrap if that’s the case. But we just went off the plan, not through endeavour, but we just couldn’t win a lineout for five or six attempts.”
He added: “Winning a game for this group is uncharted waters, and we’ve got to put a second half in like we did the first half, then we’ll be in for a shout. So, I didn’t expect that scoreline if i’m honest, it would have been a lot closer than that, so i’m a bit disappointed, certainly conceding four tries at home. But we’ve got plenty to work on, we’ve got to look at ourselves again, not the opposition. We couldn’t win a lineout and that’s down to our calling, our throwing, our lifting, which was a pain today.”
Having felt tested tonight, Diamond finished on: “But I think, as a collective, we just got to know how to win an arm wrestle, and we didn’t compete as well as we could’ve done in the second half.”
NEWCASTLE FALCONS:
TRIES: 0
CONVERSIONS: 0
PENALTIES: 1 (Connon 40’)
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15. Elliott Obatoyinbo 14. Adam Radwan 13. Connor Doherty 12. Sammy Arnold 11. Ben Stevenson 10. Brett Connon 9. Sam Stuart 1. Adam Brocklebank 2. Jamie Blamire 3. Richard Palframan 4. John Hawkins 5. Kiran McDonald 6. Freddie Lockwood 7. Tom Gordon 8. Callum Chick (Captain)
Replacements
16. Ollie Fletcher 17. Luan De Bruin 18. Murray McCallum 19. Adam Scott 20. Ollie Leatherbarrow 21. Joe Davis 22. Louis Brown 23. Ben Redshaw
BRISTOL BEARS:
TRIES: 4 (Williams 6’, Naulago 49’, Malins 63’, 77’)
CONVERSIONS: 2 (MacGinty 50’, 64’)
PENALTIES: 0
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15. Max Malins 14. Siva Naulago 13. Benhard Janse van Rensburg 12. James Williams 11. Gabriel Ibitoye 10. AJ MacGinty 9. Harry Randall 1. Ellis Genge 2. Gabriel Oghre 3. Max Lahiff 4. James Dun 5. Joe Batley 6. Steven Luatua 7. Jake Heenan 8. Fitz Harding (Captain)
Replacements
16. Will Capon 17. Jake Woolmore 18. George Kloska 19. Josh Caulfield 20. Benjamin Grondona 21. Kieran Marmion 22. Joe Jenkins 23. Rich Lane