Newcastle Falcons batter bottom club London Welsh with six-try salvo

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/11/newcastle-london-welsh-premiership-match-report

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There was a special presentation to Tom May in the West Stand bar after the final whistle in the Falcons’ home nest on Sunday. The silver-haired centre was inducted as a member of the Newcastle 100 Club, in recognition of the 267 appearances he made for the club back in the days when he helped them to two cup final successes at Twickenham.

Not that May, now the London Welsh captain, was in party mood. If the Premiership’s bottom team losing all 13 of their league games this season were not bad enough, the comprehensive manner of this defeat was even more demoralising.

Dean Richards’ new-look Newcastle scored six tries in recording their most emphatic Premiership victory in eight seasons, leaving Welsh 20 points behind the Falcons and London Irish with only a losing bonus point on the board.

May announced on Friday he would be retiring at the end of the season and the former England player seems certain to leave with the Exiles in exile from the top flight.

Gordon Ross, London Welsh’s assistant coach, was asked whether that reality was dawning on the club. He replied: “When you’ve won none out of 13, it’s a tough time. Twenty points is a massive gap. We played well against Harlequins last week but the guys just didn’t step up today. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that we didn’t make Newcastle work too hard for their tries.

“We were pretty soft at times in defence and we kept turning over possession and giving them field position and from that they scored pretty easily.”

Welsh did manage to hold out for 14 minutes but then leaked three tries in seven minutes.

First Sinoti Sinoti broke through the defensive line to the left of the posts thanks to a smart pick-up and feed from the back of a ruck by the former Scotland back-row Ally Hogg. It was a sixth try of the Premiership campaign for the Samoan wing, who was hugely influential in breaking the Welsh line.

Then the prop Rob Vickers barged over from the bottom of a driving maul. And two minutes after that the jinking Sinoti punched a hole in the Welsh defence before floating a pass to the flanker Mark Wilson who fed the former Scotland scrum-half Mike Blair for a score under the posts.

The Exiles, to their credit, struck back as the full-back, Will Robinson, teed up a try for the wing Nick Scott with a superbly judged chip into the left corner. It proved a temporary relief.

Eight minutes before the interval Newcastle had the bonus point. From a rolling maul in the right corner, their captain and openside flanker Will Welch plunged over.

London Welsh brought on Olly Barkley at the interval but it was all they could do to limit the second-half damage to the concession of two tries.

Hogg, reprising the form that won him 48 Scotland caps, galloped 50 metres to touch down on the right. Then, with three minutes left, Tom Catterick, jinked over on the left.

“I feel sorry for the London Welsh boys,” said Richards, who is busy transforming Newcastle in his third season as director of rugby. “Their heads will drop a little after today.”

Newcastle Hammersley; Sinoti, Powell (Harris, 61), Socino, Tait (Tuilagi, 68); Catterick, Blair (Tipuna, 68); Vickers (Fry, 61), Lawson (McGuigan, 61), Brookes (Orlandi, 61), Green (Thompson, 62), Furno, Wilson, Welch (capt, Mayhew 68), Hogg.

Tries Sinoti, Vickers, Blair, Welch, Hogg, Catterick. Cons Catterick 4.

London Welsh Robinson (Stegmann, 62); Kear, May (capt), Jewell (Barkley, h-t), Scott; Weepu, Rowley; Trevett (Reeves, 76), Britton (Morris, 52), Vea (Cooper 11-18, 76), West, Down, Browne (Thorpe, 56), Kirwan (Pienaar, 76), Fonua.

Try Scott. Conversion Robinson.

Referee W Barnes. Attendance 5,048.