NEWCASTLE Falcons sealed a sensational passage to next Sunday’s LV= Cup final, with a last-minute try from Tane Tu’ipulotu.
Just when they looked dead and buried following Mike Brown’s late score, the Tongan produced the goods with the very last play to seal Newcastle’s first cup final since 2004.
Their cup hopes looked to have come dramatic end as Mike Brown’s late try looked to have denied them.
Having beaten Harlequins 33-18 when the two teams met in Aviva Premiership action just a week earlier in the North East, Newcastle seemed well-placed to record their first victory at the Stoop for almost 11 years – their last win at the famous venue coming all the way back in September 2000.
But they could not have got off to a worse start, and before the Falcons had even touched the ball they were underneath their own posts as Quins raced into a seven-point lead.
A high floated kick-off from former Falcon Rory Clegg was plucked out of the air by Ugo Monye, who out-jumped Alex Tait on the 22.
Keeping patient possession with a string of telling bursts, it was a break from England Saxons prop Joe Marler which made all the difference as the pink-haired scrummager got to within just two metres of the line.
That set the stage for scrum-half Karl Dickson – brother of Falcons old-boy Lee Dickson – to snipe through a gap and dot the ball down, Clegg adding the extras from out in front.
A rampant home side soon extended the lead to double figures, as Clegg inflicted further punishment with a well-drilled penalty from just inside the Newcastle half.
Jimmy Gopperth chipped away at the deficit with three simple points from a penalty just right of the posts, but it was Quins in the ascendancy as the Londoners looked to atone for last week’s Kingston Park mauling.
Making ground at every contact through their big back-row runners, the home side sapped the energy out of the Falcons’ defence with a string of punishing pick-and-go breaks around the fringes of the ruck.
The injury-enforced departure of Harlequins’ openside Will Skinner gave renewed spring to the Newcastle step as one of their prime breakdown menaces left the field, but still the bombardment continued as a 60-metre punt pegged them back inside their own half.
A bout of midfield fisticuffs warmed the cockles momentarily on a cold capital evening, but the gap was soon back to 10 as Clegg dinked over a second penalty of the evening midway through the opening half.
As if that were not bad enough, the Falcons had to battle on through the next 10 minutes one man down, as lock forward Andrew van der Heijden earned himself a breather with some over-eager work on the floor.
