Newcastle Falcons 13-5 Bristol Bears: Brett Connon kicks hosts to victory

Callum Chick's close-range effort put the Falcons in front after 39 minutes

Newcastle ground out a hard-fought win to condemn Bristol Bears to a fourth defeat in five games.

The first half looked like it would end scoreless before Callum Chick's short-range try a minute before the break.

Bristol came out strongly in the second half and got their reward when Alapati Leiua crashed over in the corner.

However, two missed kicks from Ioan Lloyd proved costly as Newcastle's Brett Connon slotted two late penalties to secure the victory.

Newcastle tested the Bears defence in the opening stages but as the pressure was building, back-rower Dan Thomas came up with an important turnover.

The hosts went close again when Adam Radwan was just unable to collect Mike Brown's kick in behind, before Louis Shreuder thought he had scored from a quickly-taken penalty only for referee Christophe Ridley to pull play back as the tap was not taken from the right mark.

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Newcastle's pressure finally told in the 39th minute when Chick spotted a gap in the Bears defence to power over and Connon's conversion gave them a 7-0 lead at the break.

Bristol tried to inject some early pace into the second period and took advantage when Connon was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on as Callum Sheedy broke forward.

Harry Randall's quick-tap penalty led to Leiua going over in the corner under pressure from Radwan after 55 minutes, but Lloyd's conversion drifted wide of the posts.

The Welshman then missed a penalty with 13 minutes remaining and could only watch as Connon showed him how it was done to put Newcastle 10-5 up with 11 minutes left.

A high tackle then allowed the Falcons fly-half to add another penalty to extend the lead to an unassailable 13-5 and leave last year's semi-finalists with only one win from their five games this season.

Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards told BBC Newcastle:

"There were a lot of errors but to get our third win of the season out of five, I'm happy with that. But if you reflect on the first five games I'd have probably wanted one more win, but we're doing alright and if we can play as we did today then I'll take that.

"I thought we were a bit unlucky, we put all the pressure on them but just didn't get over the line the numerous times we were there but it's just one of those things. The replacements coming off the bench made a big difference, Jamie Blamire got two steals which is outstanding.

"We like to play with a bit of dynamism as Bristol do but I don't think either team were able to get into the groove which was a bit disappointing as it could have been a good game.

" I thought there was a little bit of a lack of accuracy from both sides and it probably wasn't the spectacle people were expecting."

Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I can't fault the effort and we had a lot of opportunities to win that game but unfortunately individual errors really cost us. We're going to go away and look at those errors but there was a lot of effort, the defence was so much better and it feels like we just gifted that game over.

"The boys will hurt in that sense but we've finished this first stage. Obviously we didn't get anywhere near the wins we wanted, but what we learn from this and the adversity is a chance to grow.

"We get a bit of break now and we'll launch the second part of our season. I think if anything it's a great lesson for the group because you can go through like last year but what we learned is that it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

Newcastle: Brown; Radwan, Stevenson, Wright, Carreras; Connon, Schreuder; Brocklebank, McGuigan, Davison, Peterson, Merrick, Chick, Welch (capt), Fearns.

Replacements: Blamire, Cooper, Palframan, Montgomery, G. Graham, Nordli-Kelemeti, Haydon-Wood, Wacokecoke.

Bristol: Lloyd; Fricker, Bates, Frisch, Leiua; Sheedy, Randall; Thomas, Kerr, Sinckler, Attwood (capt), Joyce, Jeffries, Thomas, Harding.

Replacements: Thacker, Lahiff, Afoa, Hawkins, Heenan, Uren, Whiteley, Powell.

Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU).

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