Having turned around only 13-10 behind at the break facing into a cold northerly wind, Quins might have expected to dominate proceedings playing with the wind in their favour, but they made life almost impossible for themselves by conceding the two early scores.

Jonny Wilkinson, playing his first league game at Kingston Park since early November, kicked the home side in front from their first real attack with a 12th minute penalty, after Quins had dominated the opening exchanges.

Paul Burke quickly levelled for the visitors, but the home side continued to use the wind to their advantage and retook the lead through the boot of Wilkinson after 25 minutes.

Tani Fuga's block of former All Black Mark Mayerhofler's attempted clearance allowed the Samoan international hooker to run the ball back 18 metres for a try under the posts that Burke converted to put the visitors 10-6 ahead, but the lead was short lived.

Wilkinson's deep restart forced the Londoners into a corner, and after Wilkinson and Mayerhofler looked to be getting nowhere in midfield, the England fly half's pass allowed Liam Botham to run through a gap in the Quins defence before off-loading to Staurt Grimes who touched down by the posts. Wilkinson easily added the two extra points on offer.



Any chance Quins had of using the conditions to their advantage after the break soon evaporated, as Newcastle continued to make the running.

Wilkinson missed a long distance penalty, but was soon called into action to convert a Falcons try minutes later after Botham had taken the ball close to the Quins line, and Hugh Vyvyan found a gap down the blindside to go over in the left hand corner from a ruck.

Worse was to follow shortly afterwards, when Jamie Noon, given a helping hand by Vyvyan, ran 55 metres through three weak challenges to add a third try and with Wilkinson adding the extras, Quins were suddenly 27-10 behind with almost 30 minutes still to play.

The Falcons grabbed only their second attacking bonus point of the season with a fourth try six minutes from the end, through Michael Stephenson, that went unconverted, as Quins rang the changes.

And seven minutes of stoppage time saw Quins pull seven points back before the final whistle when Fuga grabbed his second score of the afternoon, to complete an unusual hat-trick against Newcastle (having scored against the Falcons at the Stoop back in October), with Nathan Williams converting from close to the touchline.

Final score, 32-17.