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Breathtaking last-gasp Chick try for 14-man Newcastle stings Wasps

By PA
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

A breathtaking last-gasp try from boyhood Newcastle fan Callum Chick gave 14-man Falcons a dramatic 18-14 win over Wasps at Kingston Park. In front of a bumper crowd, the game looked to have turned on its head when Tom Penny was sent off for striking the head of Wasps centre Jimmy Gopperth in the second half. A nervy 15 minutes ensued for Dean Richards’ side, who managed to come from behind late to snatch their second win of the season courtesy of Chick’s score and Brett Connon’s conversion.

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An astute box kick from scrum-half Louis Schreuder allowed Newcastle to take full advantage of the new 50:22 rule, handing them an attacking lineout deep in Wasps territory. And from the resulting set-piece, the Falcons worked the ball through the hands with some patient phases of play which resulted in No8 Carl Fearns touching down in the fifth minute.

After seeing almost none of the ball in the opening exchanges, Wasps finally found themselves with some territory in Newcastle’s half, moving the ball through the hands out wide to ex-Falcons winger Marcus Watson. The Wasps flyer burned his way down the touchline, kicking ahead to put him in a foot race with Will Haydon-Wood, who managed to scamper back to make a try-saving recovery after 15 minutes.

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In the 20th minute, Haydon-Wood made it 8-0 with a simple penalty. The Falcons were then reduced to 14 men after Schreuder was sent to the sin bin by referee Anthony Woodthorpe for not being 10 metres away following an infringement.

Shortly after Schreuder’s sin-binning, Wasps thought they had crashed over for their first try of the game through Tom Willis, only for it to be chalked off. While Haydon-Wood edged a penalty wide, a missed penalty from Wasps fly-half Jacob Umaga meant that the Falcons went into the break with an 8-0 lead.

 

Wasps scored their first try after the breakthrough hooker Tom Cruse, who crashed over from a rolling maul. Umaga added the extras to make it a one-point game, but Kingston Park exploded into life in the 55th minute when flanker Chick intercepted a flat pass from Umaga and looked to be racing home for a coast to coast score. Some excellent cover defence from Wasps meant they somehow survived unscathed, and Penny was then sent off for striking the head of Gopperth at the base of a ruck to leave the Falcons down to 14 again.

After 63 minutes Wasps found themselves down to 14 following a high tackle from lock Vaea Fifita on centre Pete Lucock, with substitute Connon punishing the visitors to make it 11-7 with just over 15 minutes to play. Willis soon touched down for Wasps, with Umaga’s conversion giving them their first lead of the day, but the Falcons came roaring back after a thrilling passage of play which resulted in Chick touching down to give the hosts a dramatic late win.

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JW 32 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

12 Go to comments
F
Flankly 58 minutes ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

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