Battling Doncaster lose to impressive Falcons

Battling for a losing bonus point at Plymouth and denied the same late on against Bristol, last night’s trip to Newcastle saw plenty of energy but little end product.

Pre-match odds of 1-150 on a home win outlined the size of the visitors’ task against last season’s relegated Premiership side, and with Newcastle red-hot favourites for promotion it was always more in hope than expectation that the Knights travelled north.

Still, they started the evening strongly, keeping the Falcons at bay until the 20-minute mark through organised defence and slack home execution.

The deadlock was finally broken when four re-set scrums in front of the posts saw prop Brian McGovern sent to the sin-bin, and from the fifth set-piece referee Ian Tempest awarded a penalty try.

Jamie Lennard and Jimmy Gopperth exchanged penalties around the half-hour as Doncaster stayed in with a sniff, and some dogged defence from the visitors restricted the scoring as Newcastle could only muster a second penalty for a 13-3 interval advantage.

The second half was one-sided for the hosts as Gopperth’s third penalty got them going, and the gulf soon became 20 when Jonny Golding burrowed over from a close-range ruck.

Andy Brown’s late sin-binning did them no favours as Mark Wilson used the extra man to charge over from an attacking line-out, and when Gopperth ghosted through a gap with the very last play the four-try bonus point was begrudgingly conceded.

Newcastle Falcons: J Gopperth, L Fielden, T Tu’ipulotu, J Fitzpatrick, T Catterick, W Luveniyali (J Hodgson, 64), R Lawson; J Golding, M Thompson (R Vickers, 62), O Tomaszczyk (J Hall, 62), S MacLeod, J Hudson (S Tomes, 75), R Mayhew, W Welch (captain, M Wilson, 40), A Hogg.

Doncaster Knights: D Flockhart, D Mama, W Simpson, J Tincknell, T Lewis, J Lennard, C Hallam (S Pailor, 67); B McGovern (A Brown, 64), R Buckley (B Sowery, 65), J Cronin, R Cadman, P Hoy, M Challinor (captain, A Boyde, 58), J Rawling (D Bradford, 58), A Kettle (T Barrett, 22).