Premiership Rugby Cup: Northampton Saints thrash Doncaster as Newcastle Falcons beat Caldy
- Published
England's Tom Pearson scored his first tries for Northampton since signing for the club this summer
Northampton and Newcastle ended their Premiership Rugby Cup campaigns with wins over Championship sides Doncaster and Caldy respectively.
With Gloucester, Leicester, Exeter and Ealing confirmed as winners of each group, none of the teams were able to qualify for the semi-finals.
Newcastle's 66-13 win against Caldy saw them finish second in pool B.
Archie McParland scored a hat-trick of tries as Saints thrashed Doncaster 82-12 to also finish runners-up in pool D.
Falcons, who won four of their five group games, led 26-8 at half-time through tries from Iwan Stephens, Ben Douglas, Michael van Vuuren and George Wacokecoke, with Ted Stagg pulling one back for Caldy.
While Matthew Kilcourse added a second for Caldy early in the second half, the traffic went all Newcastle's way with Ollie Fletcher, Louis Brown, a brace from Stephens, Max Pepper, Louie Johnson and Louis Brown all getting on the scoresheet.
At Franklin Gardens, Saints summer signing Tom Pearson scored his first tries for the club, opening the scoring in the third minute following his move after the collapse of London Irish.
George Furbank made it 14-0 10 minutes later and while Knights kept Northampton in check early on, with Harry Davey's try clawing them to within seven points, that was as close as the score would get.
England international Pearson added a second before 18-year-old McParland scored Saints' fourth for the bonus point and a 28-7 lead at the break.
Former Knights captain Sam Graham, Fin Smith, Chunya Munga, James Ramm, Tom Seabrook and George Hendy helped add another 54 points to the board as Saints ran-in 11 tries, with George Simpson getting a consolation for Doncaster.
Gloucester will next play Ealing and Exeter will take on Leicester in the semi-finals, which are due to be held on the weekend of 16-18 February.