It was good to get back to the Stoop and Quins winning ways as they finished with a 18-11 win over Rob Andrews' Newcastle Falcons.

It was in no way a highly entertaining game of expansive rugby, like so many were hoping. Quins started the game a little shaky when Paul Burke missed the first penalty kick, but he regained his kicking finesse shortly after and put one over the posts in the 8th minute. (3-0)

This penalty came after an exciting break by winger Ugo Monye who dashed down the touchline to the crowds delight, but unfortunately Monye was taken down before any chance of scoring.

With a slow start for both teams and too many mistakes creeping into the game, it was only really the boot of Burke that put the Newcastle Falcons under pressure.

In the 17th minute hooker Ace Tiatia went down with what looked to be a calf strain and Tani Fuga came on as his replacement. Ace is being assessed today and it appears to be a torn calf muscle that may keep him out for four to six weeks.

Ex-Quins player Ben Gollings put the first points on the board for the visitors in the 21st minute when Quins conceded a penalty. (3 -3)

Monye livened things up a few minutes later with another thrilling run, but again Newcastle was able to put a cap on his speed and flair. After some excellent cross-field passing, a sure scoring opportunity went astray when a pass to Monye went amiss right near the Falcons line.

Burke slotted a penalty in the 34th minute making it 6-3 after Newcastle were penalised for being offside and then in an uncharacteristic spell he missed a drop goal attempt and a penalty kick, but you can't keep Burke down for long and he came back in the 39th minute with a great kick slotted from 40 metres out taking the score to 9-3 at half time.

Simon Keogh came on in the last few minutes of the first half to replace Mel Deane and the midfield was slightly disrupted with this replacement as Rob Jewell then moved from wing into the centres.

In short it was not a entertaining first half and the crowds were relatively subdued as a result. Notable performance by Jim Evans.

The second half kicked off and was not much better as far as open play goes. Newcastle made a number of substitutions during the break with ex-Springbok Marius Hurter going off as well as Tom May.

Quins managed to put another three-pointer between the sides in the 46th minute with Burke's fourth successful penalty (12-3).

Quins made two replacements in the 53rd minute with both props coming off the field and Gomez and Jones were replaced by Worsley and Dawson.

Newcastle hammered away at the home side and their work paid off when Ben Gollings scored the only try of the match in the 60th minute. Winger Michael Stephenson managed to elude the Quins defence and passed the ball to Gollings who scored in the corner. Gollings missed the conversion (12-8)

The boot of Burke was in action again in the 62nd minute taking the tally to 15-8. Then trouble really hit for the visitors, when their captain, South African Mark Andrews, was shown the red card in the 65th minute. Referee Roy Maybank saw it fit to send him off for foul play and what was seen as dropping his knee into Pat Sanderson's head.


All credit to Newcastle as they did not look too badly hit by the loss of their captain and played positively for a side one man down, although another penalty saw Quins inching ahead with Burke slotting his sixth and final penalty of the day (18-8).

Gollings came back with a three pointer a few minutes later and kicked a penalty. The successful kick brought the score to 18-11.

The most exciting play of the match, or the one that got the most noise out of the Stoop crowds, was a rolling maul about twenty odd minutes into the second half, going almost 30 metres.

At the end of the day it was the six penalties from Burke that kept the winning home streak on track, allowed for Quins to stay at second place on the Zurich Premiership table and earned him the title of 'Man of the Match.'

Final score, 18-11 to the NEC Harlequins.