Led by Nick Evans, the game started promisingly enough. Quins were camped in the Falcons 22 for the first 10 minutes and the Kiwi fly half almost set up two try scoring attacks. Both ended in penalties against the beleaguered defence and 6-0 was the least Quins deserved for their efforts.

Falcons got into the contest by capitalising on a mistake. A knock on from the re-start led to a Newcastle attack and this time it was Quins who were pinged for an offence at the breakdown. May made the kick and it was game on.

Newcastle came surging forward and after some desperate defending, Young took the chance to sweep the ball wide and Visser was able to squeeze in at the corner after 19 minutes. May missed the difficult conversion, but Falcons led after a quarter of the game.

The rest of the first half was pretty scrappy with mistakes on both sides. The wind (apparently, there is always a wind at Kingston Park!) was causing difficulties and handling errors were abundant.

With the game headed towards half time, Evans slotted a third penalty and it looked as if Quins would go into the break with their noses in front. However, disaster then reared its head for the first time. Having quashed an attack on their own line, Quins had ball and feed at the resultant scrum. They were called for collapsing (apparently by the linesman 50 yards away) and May nailed the kick to send Falcons down the tunnel with a lead – 11-9.

When Tom Guest failed to appear for the second half and Nick Evans left one minute later, Quins appeared to be staring down the barrel. With Care, Easter and Monye away on England duty, the bench was thinner than we have become accustomed to. Guest had a shoulder ‘stinger’ and Evans turned an ankle. Both had picked up their knocks early in the game, but had manfully carried on as long as they could. After the game, Deano was confident that both would be ready to go again next Sunday (Phew!)

May immediately slotted another penalty and that was all the scoring until the final five minutes. For over half an hour several players on both sides – Strettle and Visser being the obvious two, made great breaks only to have team mates commit critical errors and waste the chances.

A significant turning point came when Quins chose to decline the chance to convert a kickable penalty in favour of a kick to the corner. The attack fizzled out, but those three points would have made a huge difference to the tactics at the end of the game.

When May added his fourth kick on 76 minutes Quins were staring at an 8 point deficit, with the score at 17-9. As you would expect from Harlequins these days, they mustered another big effort and after battering their way towards the Falcons line, Mike Brown saw half a gap and crashed over. The conversion left us one agonising point behind.

With 18 seconds on the clock Quins threw the ball around in a desperate attempt to steal an improbable win. Unfortunately, the high risk strategy was punished when May stepped up to intercept a long pass and score. By adding the conversion he took the lead back out to 8 points with the final kick of the game.

It was a frustrating end to a frustrating afternoon.

Newcastle: 15. A.Tait, 14. Fenby (Jones 69 mins), 13. Noon, 12. Tu’ipulotu, 11. Visser, 10. May, 9. Young, 1. Golding, 2. Vickers (Thompson 69 mins), 3. Hayman, 4. Swinson, 5. Sorenson (Parling 52 mins), 6. Dowson (Capt.), 7. Wilson, 8. Balding (Winter 61 mins).
Replacements: 16. Thompson (for Vickers 69 mins), 17. Ward, 18. Parling (for Sorenson 52 mins), 19. Winter (for Balding 61 mins), 20. Charlton, 21. Miller, 22. S. Jones (for Fenby 69 mins).

Harlequins: 15. Brown, 14. Strettle, 13. Tiesi, 12. Turner-Hall (Barry 61 mins), 11. Williams, 10. Evans (Malone 42 mins), 9. Gomarsall (Poluleuligaga 61 mins), 1. Jones, 2. Botha (Fuga 61 mins), 3. Ross (Lambert 72 mins), 4. Kohn (Evans 55 mins), 5. Robson, 6. Robshaw, 7. Skinner (Capt.), 8. Guest (McMillan 41 mins).
Replacements: 16. Fuga (for Botha 61 mins), 17. Lambert (for Ross 72 mins), 18. Evans (for Kohn 55 mins), 19. McMillan (for Guest 41 mins), 20. Poluleuligaga (for Gomarsall 61 mins), 21. Malone (for Evans 42 mins), 22. Barry (for Turner-Hall 61 mins).

Attendance 7705

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