Edinburgh take charge
CHAMPIONS CUP REPORT: Edinburgh put in a superb second-half display to defeat Newcastle Falcons 21-8 at Kingston Park on Sunday.
The result is that they took control of Pool Five.
Sinoti Sinoti opened the scoring for the home side but it was fantastic play out wide from Simon Hammersley – who made the difficult catch and offload – releasing Vereniki Goneva who found Sinoti and the winger did the rest, diving over for the first try. Flyhalf Toby Flood could only push his conversion wide.
Newcastle came under pressure after the opening score, and was penalised for not rolling away, giving Jaco van der Walt a first sight at the posts. The South African made no mistake and cut the gap.
The home side then forced Edinburgh to retreat inside their own 22, working the ball through the hands before referee Alexandre Ruiz blew his whistle as the Scottish side strayed offside and Flood kicked the penalty between the sticks.
The away side had the best of the last 10 minutes of the first half, powering their way close to the try line, but was stopped short so referee Ruiz went back to the initial offside advantage.
From that, Van der Walt had the simple task of slotting over the kick in front of the posts for what was the final points of the first half.
Edinburgh dominated second-half proceedings and deservedly took the lead on 42 minutes, when James Johnstone dotted down after a delicious kick in behind the Newcastle line. Van der Walt tucked away the conversion and he extended the lead on the hour mark when the away side won a crucial scrum penalty in kicking range.
The away side continued to take control and killed off any hope of a Newcastle comeback with seven minutes to play, when the ball was spread wide and play reached Duhan van der Merwe who powered clear for a second Edinburgh try.
Pool Five leaders Edinburgh will travel to face RC Toulon in Round Five, while Newcastle Falcons will take on Montpellier.
The scorers:
For Newcastle Falcons:
Try: Sinoti
Pen: Flood
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Johnstone, Van der Merwe
Cons: Van der Walt
Pens: Van der Walt Van der Walt 3
Teams
Newcastle Falcons: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Vereniki Goneva, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Toby Flood (captain), 9 Sonatane Takulua, 8 Nemani Nagusa, 7 John Hardie, 6 Mark Wilson, 5 Tevita Cavubati, 4 Calum Green, 3 Trevor Davison, 2 Kyle Cooper, 1 Sam Lockwood.
Replacements: 16 George McGuigan, 17 Sami Mavinga, 18 Jack Payne, 19 Glen Young, 20 Gary Graham, 21 Sam Stuart, 22 Brett Connon, 23 Tom Arscott.
Edinburgh: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 James Johnstone, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Jaco van der Walt, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Luke Hamilton, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Ben Toolis, 3 WP Nel, 2 Stuart McInally (captain), 1 Allan Dell.
Replacements: 16 Dave Cherry, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Callum Hunter-Hill, 20 Luke Crosbie, 21 Nathan Fowles, 22 Simon Hickey, 23 Juan Pablo Socino.
Referee: Alexandre Ruiz (France)
Assistant referees: Thomas Charabas (France), Luc Ramos (France)
TMO: Eric Briquet-Campin (France)
Source: @ChampionsCup
