PREMIERSHIP RUGBY 7s – GALLANT FIGHBACK FAILS TO SECURE PLATE FINAL BERTH
Newcastle Falcons Premiership Rugby 7s series came to a frustrating end in the semi-finals of the plate competition as they lost out 12 – 5 to London Irish after brilliantly levelling the match with only three minutes remaining.
In appalling conditions as the BT Sport Friday night weather curse struck again, the Stoop soaked in heavy persistent rain and as a result, it was another tentative first half as both teams looked to make an impression yet keep hold of an increasingly greasy ball.
Attempting to take the ball and pace and open up the Irish defence, skipper Tom Catterick’s knock on ended up being the turn over that give Irish their opening score.
Playing advantage, Irish pilled forward looking to create space and after a couple of phases a looping pass from Ollie Williams found Welsh Commonwealth games player Will Harries who fended off Chris Harris to score.
With only a minute to go to the break, Irish looked to build on their lead following a turnover 40 meters out, but aggressive Falcons defence held out.
Looking to get back into the game, Catterick almost released Glen Young for a clear run to the line in the first minute, only for the pass to be adjudged as forward.
From the resultant scrum, Irish attempted to break through the Falcons defence, only for their way to be blocked by a monster tackle from Ben Morris. After managing to recycle the Falcons cover defence saw Dan Temm on hand to force the Exiles into touch.
From the line out, the Falcons proceeded to score arguably the try of the tournament and certainly the try of the night with a 90 meter counter attack
Winning their own line out, the ball fell to James Christie who in turn fed Catterick who was behind the Falcons try line. A clever jink saw the captain draw three Irish defenders and create a chance for Glen Youngs to shrug off his own cover tackler before surging towards halfway.
A further hand off allowed the Scottish Under 20s lock to feed Christie who turned up the pace to take the attack into the Irish 22.
Offloading to Ollie Walker, the final defenders were successfully drawn to allow Temm to finish a sublime score.
With the scores now level, it was all to play for and although the Falcons continued to give a good account of themselves, they were ultimately undone by a quick succession of handling errors and penalties that give Irish the territory and possession to exploit and score the winning try and conversion.
