Exeter 36 Newcastle Falcons 10
Dec 13 2010 by Mark Smith, The Journal
FALCONS head coach Alan Tait acknowledged that Newcastle’s European campaign was effectively over after Saturday’s five-try defeat at Exeter Chiefs.
The sides meet again in Amlin Challenge Cup action at Kingston Park on Sunday, but the head coach admitted: “That looks like the end of the road for us in this competition, even though we can still technically squeeze through.
“I’m looking at the bigger picture though, and I said from day one that I was always going to use this tournament to give game-time to some of our players who need a run-out.”
The Falcons retain a slim mathematical chance of quarter-final progress at the half-way point of the group stages, but with just one win from their three games to date, the club are all but resigned to the fact that they will miss out on the last eight for the first time in almost a decade.
Having wrapped a number of his stars in cotton wool for the Boxing Day Premiership battle against Leeds, Tait said: “It’s tough to come down to a place like Exeter in those circumstances, but we’ve got them again at home in the same competition on Sunday.
“We’ll just have to patch the lads up, get the team out there and hopefully claw back a bit of pride.
“We have to do to them what they did to us.”
What Exeter did to Newcastle was hit them hard, and hit them direct.
Right from the off, their big, ball-carrying forwards pounded the fringes, getting over the gain line with alarming ease. Once there, they made good use of their field position, too, racking up a 17-0 lead on the half hour after tries from prop Ben Moon and flanker Herbie Stupple added to an early Ryan Davis penalty.
A scoreless first half for the visitors was compounded when they let in a third try with the last play before the interval – Davis’s superb cross-field kick picking out right-winger Matt Jess in acres of space.
With positives in short supply for the Falcons, one notable plus point came with the return of winger Danny Williams – making his first appearance of the season after hamstring problems.
