Newcastle Falcons went down fighting at champions Saracens in the Aviva Premiership on Sunday.

Tries from Joe Maddock, Alex Goode and winger James Short secured victory for the Londoners, who cemented their second place position.

The Falcons gave a good account of themselves despite tasting defeat and now have a two week break from the domestic scene before switching their attention back to the Premiership with a date at Northampton Saints on Saturday 29 October.

Games against Cardiff Blues (home) and London Irish (away) in the LV= Cup are now the focus for the Tyneside outfit.

In a blood and thunder contest, Saracens were first off the mark with a try from Maddock on 16 minutes. Quick hands in the host’s back division unleashed the flyer to touchdown in the corner to give his side a 5-0 lead. Charlie Hodgson failed with the touchline conversion.

Despite the early set-back Alan Tait’s men demonstrated great character and resolve to make an instant reply four minutes later courtesy of wing ace Luke Fielden.

Jamie Helleur collected a neat Jimmy Gopperth chip to get the Falcons on their way to the try line. From the breakdown scrum half Chris Pilgrim darted through a hole in the Sarries defence before throwing a looping pass to Ally Hogg, who in turn fed Fielden on the overlap to sprint in for his second touchdown of the campaign. Fielden showed superb upper body strength to shrug off the close attention of Short to cross the whitewash.

Gopperth was unable to add the extras and the score remained evenly poised at five a piece. The boot of Hodgson extended the home side’s lead to 11-5 following a brace of penalties.

Newcastle continued to hold their own in defence, thwarting a string of Saracens attacks but could not prevent Goode from squeezing in at the left hand corner on 36 minutes. A sweeping cross-field move presented the winger with the chance to put some gloss on the first-half score-line.

Hodgson smashed home the conversion to give the Vicarage Road unit an 18-5 interval advantage to the delight of the home crowd. The Falcons could have narrowed the gap on the stroke of half-time but a Gopperth penalty crashed against the upright.

With a first-half dominated by a barrage of Sarries pressure you could have been forgiven for thinking it was going to be a long afternoon for the Falcons. Not a bit of it. Newcastle conceded just the solitary converted try five minutes into the second period and withstood heavy pressure for the rest of the game to stop Saracens from recording a bonus point victory.

Sarries winger Short crossed the whitewash on 45 minutes following a rapid 80-metre break which left three Falcons tacklers in his wake. After his progress was halted by a scrambling Falcons rearguard the ball was recycled and returned to Short who scooted in for the score. Hodgson kicked the conversion to make it 25-5 to Saracens. 

The club would like to thank all the Falcons supporters who made the long journey down to Watford today and your support is greatly appreciated.

Tickets for next week’s LV= Cup game against Cardiff at Kingston Park (kick-off 6.30pm) are still available by calling 0871 226 6060 or please click here.

Saracens: Goode; Maddock, Farrell, Barritt, Short; Hodgson, De Kock; Carstens, Brits, Nieto; Borthwick (capt), Kruis; Wray, Saull, Joubert

Replacements: Strettle for Short (46), Gill for Carstens (51), Botha for Borthwick (56), Melck for Saull (59), George for Brits (59), Spencer for de Kock (61), Powell for Farrell (66), Vunipola for Nieto (72)

Newcastle: A Tait; Fielden, Uys, Helleur, Shortland; Gopperth, Pilgrim; Shiells, Graham, Hall; Townson, Swinson; R Mayhew, Pennycook, Hogg

Replacements: Goosen for A Tait (30), Fearn for Shiells (59), M Mayhew for Graham (59), van der Heijden for Swinson (59), Eves for Fielden (61), Chudley for Pilgrim (61), Wilson for Shortland (62), Wells for Hall (62)

Attendance: 5,892

Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)