Fourteen-man Newcastle edge Gloucester in fiery Premiership clash

PREMIERSHIP REPORT: Fourteen-man Newcastle Falcons produced a stunning performance in Mark Laycock’s first home game in charge, prevailing 17-12 over Gloucester in a fiery Premiership encounter at Kingston Park.

The sides traded early tries through Seb Blake and Adam Radwan, before Richard Palframan’s sending off for a shoulder tackle proved key in the first half – Ollie Thorley punished the hosts with a touchdown within minutes, as the hosts squandered numerous chances in a bad-tempered opening period.

But a try from Elliott Obatoyinbo proved just reward for a spirited performance from the depleted home side, who could’ve extended their lead but for Brett Connon failing to nail a penalty from long range.

It proved not to be pivotal, as the Falcons closed out a highly impressive victory to complete the double over their opponents and earn their sixth league win of the season.

Newcastle Falcons interim head coach Mark Laycock said: “It’s all down to the effort the boys have put in – fair play to them for putting in such a huge shift.

“It’s adversity, we’re used to dealing with adversity – I think we see the best of us in adverse times and today was one of those occasions.

“[Obatoyinbo] had a fantastic performance, but you could probably look at loads of them – Callum Chick, I thought, was fantastic from minute one to 80.

“There were so many guys there who really put their hands up and put in their best performance of the season.”

The scorers:

For Newcastle:
Tries: Radwan, Obatoyinbo
Cons: Connon 2
Pen: Connon

For Gloucester:
Tries: Blake, Thorley
Con: Carreras

Red card: Richard Palframan (Newcastle Falcons, 16′)

Teams:

Newcastle: 15 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Matias Orlando, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Michael Young (captain), 8 Carl Fearns, 7 Callum Chick, 6 Pedro Rubiolo, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 4 Greg Peterson, 3 Richard Palframan, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Adam Brocklebank.
Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Logovi’i Mulipola, 18 Mark Tampin, 19 Freddie Lockwood, 20 Tom Marshall, 21 Sam Stuart, 22 Josh Thomas, 23 Ben Stevenson.

Gloucester: 15 Lloyd Evans, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Santi Carreras, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Lewis Ludlow (captain), 6 Jordy Reid, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Freddie Clarke, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Seb Blake, 1 Harry Elrington.
Replacements: 16 Henry Walker, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19 Cam Jordan, 20 Jack Clement, 21 Charlie Chapman, 22 Billy Twelvetrees, 23 Tom Seabrook.

Referee: Adam Leal
Assistant referees: George Selwood, John Meredith
TMO: Andrew Jackson

Source: @premrugby