Premiership Result: Newcastle Falcons 25 v 22 Harlequins

Brett Connon’s last-minute penalty sealed a dramatic Gallagher Premiership victory for Newcastle Falcons on Saturday as they dug in against in-form Harlequins.

Leading 14-7 at the break and needing every ounce of character to edge it at the death, Connon stepped up to slot a penalty from the left to clinch a hard-earned triumph.

Newcastle had missed an early opportunity to open the scoring just two minutes in when Connon’s long-range penalty was fractionally off-target - the fly-half having been a late call-up for the injured Joel Hodgson.

Joe Marchant knocked on for Harlequins ten metres from the Falcons’ line as the Londoners flung the ball wide early on – Marco Fuser’s enthusiastic jackalling earning a penalty for the home side.

The first points of the day finally arrived on 13 minutes, and it was worth the wait as Callum Chick marked his first appearance of the season with a try in the left corner.

The No 8 collected an offload from Sean Robinson 15 metres out, Ben Stevenson having chased down a Louis Schreuder box kick to help create the scoring opportunity.

Connon slotted a majestic touchline conversion to extend his side’s lead to seven, the home side fronting up physically as Philip van der Walt snaffled a midfield turnover with Quins pushed off their own ruck ball.

FULL MATCH REPORT HERE AT THE OFFY

Dean Richards declared himself a happy man after a last-minute penalty from Brett Connon saw his Newcastle Falcons side snatch a 25-22 home win over Harlequins.

The in-form Londoners ended a run of four straight Gallagher Premiership victories at Kingston Park Stadium on Saturday, Richards saying: “They’re a good side.

“They came up here on the back of four wins whereas we hadn’t played for three weeks, and had hardly trained, so for us to get out there and win in the way we did was very pleasing.

“We probably left another three tries out there and at times we made hard work of it, which in part is credit to Harlequins making life so difficult.

“We looked rusty at times, as you’d expect after two weeks away, and even though we created a lot of line-breaks we just didn’t finish off enough of them.

“We’ve hardly been able to train for the last two or three weeks, and the boys are all joking in the changing room that maybe we should cancel the next three weeks’ training as well!”

Further Comments from Dean here