Falcons 14 Northampton Saints 16 - Newcastle Falcons
"Northampton Saints Win With 16 Points"
Streaking into the future, it will be the 29th of October 2023 and the game will start at 3pm at Kingston Park.
Despite a late rush of attack during Sunday's visit from Northampton Saints to the Gallagher Premiership, Newcastle Falcons only managed to secure a bonus point for their loss.
Iwan Stephens scored a late goal in the left corner, giving the home team an opportunity to tie the game with five minutes left. However, the attempt to score from the touchline failed when the ball hit the post and bounced back.
At half-time, both teams had the same number of points with a score of 6-6. Brett Connon and Fin Smith contributed to their team's scores by each kicking two successful penalties.
The team playing at home had advantage with their early position and control of the game. However, it took them until the 11th minute to gain points on the scoreboard with Connon successfully taking a penalty kick from the right side.
At that point of time, the Falcons had already made a penalty kick towards the corner but failed to score. Additionally, the rainy weather was causing problems for the players as it made handling difficult for both teams.
On the 16th minute, Northampton managed to tie the game through Smith's effortless penalty kick from the 22 after a violation during a scrum. Despite the harsh weather conditions, Newcastle continued to push forward as evidenced by the collaboration of Iwan Stephens and Adam Radwan on the left flank.
The team took the lead again after 27 minutes thanks to their strong performance in the scrum, which resulted in a penalty kick from 40 meters on the right side. Connon did a great job in controlling the difficult weather conditions and managed to score a perfect goal.
The player in the fly-half position kicked the ball gently over the heads of the defenders who were rushing towards him, hoping to create another opportunity to attack. Unfortunately, the team lost control of the ball again during physical contact with the opposing team.
Newcastle aimed to score by kicking a penalty towards the left corner, but unfortunately, they failed to secure the resulting line-out in a perfect attacking location. The score was even at half-time because of a thoughtless penalty given away by Newcastle in front of their own goalposts, allowing Smith to score three points easily.
During the second half of the game, the Falcons had the chance to take the lead, but unfortunately, they missed their opportunity. Connon attempted a long-range penalty from the right, but it narrowly missed the target by a very small amount. Despite this setback, the Falcons continued to dominate the scrum, which gave them the chance to take the shot at the goal.
On the 55th minute, Northampton took the lead. Tom Pearson made a move and passed the ball to Curtis Langdon, who scored to the right of the posts. Smith made the conversion with ease.
At the hour mark, Connon succeeded in scoring their third penalty, decreasing their lead to four points. However, Smith responded with a goal from a short distance. Nevertheless, there were still more thrilling moments to follow.
Newcastle received a lot of penalties in the red-zone, but they were able to score a try on the left side through Iwan Stephens. The try was made possible by a long pass that allowed for Connon to kick from the sidelines and tie the score.
Sadly, the kick hit the post and bounced back instead of going into the goal. This meant that his team only earned another losing bonus point for the season.
The Newcastle Falcons team included the following players in their recent game: Elliott Obatoyinbo as the number 15 player, who was replaced by Matias Orlando in the 52nd minute. Adam Radwan was the number 14 player, while Tom Penny took the number 13 position. Rory Jennings played as the number 12 player, with Iwan Stephens in the number 11 position. Brett Connon played as the number 10 player, and Sam Stuart was the number 9 player until he was substituted by Hugh O'Sullivan in the 66th minute. The team's front row players were Adam Brocklebank as the number 1, Jamie Blamire as the number 2, and Mark Tampin as the number 3 player, who was later replaced by Murray McCallum in the 55th minute. Philip van der Walt was the number 4 player and was replaced by John Hawkins in the 63rd minute. Sebastian de Chaves played as the number 5 player and was later substituted by Kiran McDonald in the 63rd minute. Sam Cross played as the number 6 player, who was then replaced by Freddie Lockwood in the 61st minute. Finally, Guy Pepper played as the number 7 player, and Callum Chick was the captain and played as the number 8 player.
Goal Scorers: Iwan Stephens scored a try while Brett Connon successfully converted 3 penalties.
The players who will be representing Northampton Saints are as follows: George Furbank as the captain, Tom Seabrook, Fraser Dingwall, Rory Hutchinson, George Hendy, Fin Smith, Tom James, Ethan Waller (who will be replaced by Alex Waller at the 47th minute mark), Curtis Langdon (who will be replaced by Tom Cruse at the 70th minute mark), Trevor Davison, Chunya Munga, Alex Coles, Angus Scott-Young, Tom Pearson, and Sam Graham.
The individuals who made points by crossing the tryline were Curtis Langdon. Fin Smith successfully converted the tries. Additionally, Fin Smith made two successful penalty kicks.
Match official: Hamish Smales. Number of people present: 5,124.
