Match Report – Gloucester 21 – 27 Newcastle

Newcastle were bottom of the Premiership table before the match, but raced to a 24-0 lead after 35 minutes; the Falcons held off a second-half comeback from Gloucester to win just their second match of the season, with Adam Radwan, George McGuigan and Callum Chick scoring their tries

Adam Radwan celebrates scoring Newcastle’s first try of their shock win at Gloucester

Newcastle turned the form-book on its head with a thrilling 27-21 victory in a remarkable game at Gloucester.

Bottom of the table beforehand, the Falcons built up a 24-0 lead within the first 35 minutes but a listless Gloucester rose from their slumbers to dominate a second half which saw four Newcastle players sin-binned.

Adam Radwan, George McGuigan and Callum Chick scored their tries. Brett Connon converted all three and added two penalties.

Tom Seabrook and Cam Jordan scored Gloucester’s tries, both converted by George Barton, in addition to a penalty try award.

Newcastle took an early lead thanks to a brilliant individual try from Radwan. The twice-capped England wing received the ball on halfway, close to the left touchline, before running around two defenders and then out-pacing the cover defence to score in the right-hand corner.

Shortly afterwards, Falcons shocked the hosts by scoring again. Captain Michael Young broke away from a line-out on halfway and when the ball was recycled, Chick was on hand to crash over with a second conversion from Connon giving Newcastle a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Gloucester continued to be largely lifeless with their game littered by uncustomary handling errors and they even bungled their forte, a driving line-out 10 metres from the opposition line – so it came as no surprise when Newcastle extended their lead with a straightforward penalty from Connon.

The home side’s miserable half continued when McGuigan finished off a driving line-out but with two minutes of the half remaining, Gloucester responded with a try from Seabrook after the wing had bumped off a weak tackle from Nathan Earle.

Gloucester trailed 24-7 at half-time with front-rowers, Jack Singleton and Ciaran Knight, introduced in an attempt to reverse their fortunes.

However the first 15 minutes of the second half remained scoreless until McGuigan and Sean Robinson were yellow-carded in quick succession for collapsing driving mauls and Gloucester had no trouble in capitalising when replacement Jordan finished off a succession of forward drives.

Despite being down to 13, Falcons remarkably won a penalty for Connon to kick before McGuigan became the first to return from the sin-bin.

Robinson also returned but Newcastle continued to offend, with both Chick and Tom Penny yellow-carded in quick succession and the hosts awarded a penalty try for collapsing for Penny’s infraction.

Gloucester had eight minutes against 13 men to score the winning try but somehow Newcastle frustrated them to secure a notable victory.