It was a frustrating day in the capital for Newcastle Falcons as Harlequins took all five points from Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership encounter at the Twickenham Stoop.

The Falcons trailed 21-7 at half-time and had been forced into a last-minute change when Brett Connon’s withdrew during the warm-up – new signing Ethan Grayson promoted to a starting debut at fly-half just ten minutes before kick-off.

But it not affect their early flow, Newcastle storming into a seven-point lead inside five minutes when a flowing passage of handling play ended with John Hawkins barrelling over near the posts after fast feet from Adam Radwan, hard carrying from Callum Chick and a killer offload from Jamie Blamire.

Grayson added the simple conversion, but the teams were level again on 15 minutes when Harlequins kicked a penalty to the left corner, from which hooker Nathan Jibulu scored from a trick play at the front.

Marcus Smith added the touchline conversion, and he did so again from a more central position on 24 minutes after open-side Will Evans scored from a close-range pick and go down the right.

The Londoners registered their third try just after the half-hour when Wales and Lions great Leigh Halfpenny collected an offload to dot down in the right corner, Smith once again slotting the extras for a 21-7 half-time advantage.

They added another seven to that tally just a minute into the second half when a line-break down the left and an inside pass enabled scrum-half Will Porter to coast in for their bonus-point try, with Smith adding the conversion from in front.

Newcastle’s task was made even more difficult when full-back Elliott Obatoyinbo was yellow-carded for a high tackle, but they rode out the sin-bin period without conceding further points and added a second try of their own.

Ben Redshaw was the man to score it, with the replacement wing hitting an inside line to collect a simple pass from a two-on-one after a flowing period of handling from the visitors.

Grayson converted, but a third try to get his team within bonus-point range eluded them in the end

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan (Ben Redshaw, 40), 13 Connor Doherty (Louis Brown, 63), 12 Sammy Arnold, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Ethan Grayson, 9 Sam Stuart (Joe Davis, 61); 1 Adam Brocklebank (Luan de Bruin, 55), 2 Jamie Blamire (Ollie Fletcher, 61), 3 Richard Palframan (Murray McCallum, 55), 4 John Hawkins, 5 Kiran McDonald (Adam Scott, 65), 6 Philip van der Walt (Freddie Lockwood, 62), 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Scorers – Tries: John Hawkins, Ben Redshaw. Conversions: Ethan Grayson 2.

Harlequins: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Nick David, 13 Luke Northmore (Oscar Beard, 19), 12 Lennox Anyanwu, 11 Cassius Cleaves (Jarrod Evans, 51), 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Will Porter (Danny Care, 70); 1 Fin Baxter (Wyn Jones, 62), 2 Nathan Jibulu, 3 Titi Lamositele (Simon Kerrod, 53), 4 Joe Launchbury (Irne Herbst, 53), 5 Stephan Lewies (captain), 6 Jack Kenningham, 7 Will Evans, 8 Chandler Cunningham-South (Dino Lamb, 66).

Scorers – Tries: Nathan Jibulu, Will Evans, Leigh Halfpenny, Will Porter. Conversions: Marcus Smith 4.

Referee: Luke Pearce.