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Watch: Newcastle score the fastest ever try in European history
By Liam Heagney
Newcastle don’t have much of a European pedigree but they managed to break a record last weekend when centre Max Wright scored the fastest ever try in those tournaments when touching down against Worcester after just eleven seconds, shaving four seconds off the previous best mark.
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Recent Falcons versus the Warriors clashes have been eventful, to say the least. When Worcester visited Newcastle in the Gallagher Premiership last month the match was held over until the following day due to a storm and a nail-biter ensued, resulting in a 24-all draw on a freezing late November night in the English northeast.
There was no snow on the Kingston Park pitch 13 days later when the teams met again, this time in Europe, but what was served up in the Challenge Cup was no less entertaining as Newcastle edged a 31-26 win in which the try scored in a blink of an eye at the start was ultimately the difference.
What happened was that the Worcester lifting pod got its positioning wrong when trying to gather Will Haydon-Wood’s kick-off as it fell from the sky outside the 22. This led to the ball bouncing twice, inviting Wright to fasten onto it without breaking stride to score in the corner.
The swiftness of the score in front of a 3,431 attendance eclipsed the previous fastest European try scored by Harry Randall after 15 seconds for Bristol Bears in the 2020 Challenge Cup final against Toulon in Provence. The quickest score prior to that was an 18-second Heineken Cup try for Napolioni Nalaga for Clermont away to Scarlets in 2013.
Now that's how you start a European campaign 😱💪
In a topsy turvy game at Kingston Park, @FalconsRugby battled past @WorcsWarriors for an opening #ChallengeCupRugby night victory 👏pic.twitter.com/8Go7JVqwiy
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) December 11, 2021
Newcastle boss Dean Richards didn’t get hung up about his team’s record-breaking breakthrough in the aftermath, however. “It was a bit like when we drew with them [Worcester] in the league here, and we should have won by a country mile if I’m being honest,” he said on his club’s website.
“We allowed them time and again to get back into the game, we showed our inaccuracy in certain areas but at the same time we have got that ability to turn it on when we want to”
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