Scottish loss keeps Falcons winless

The pre-season ended with a third successive defeat for Newcastle Falcons, as Edinburgh won the second annual Hawick Hack. The Scottish side won thanks to the boots of Greig Tonks and Tom Heathcote, with both teams scoring two tries.

A good crowd of nearly 2,000 were at Mansfield Park to witness the first Alex and Andy Tuilagi make their Falcons bows late in the second half, and both made some storming runs to get the crowd on their feet. However they were unable to help make up a six-point deficit and give the Falcons a much-needed win.

The Falcons started with Mike Blair, George McGuigan, Tom Catterick and Dom Barrow following their outings for the reserves at Doncaster last week, and Juan Pablo Socino was handed the number ten shirt. Edinburgh started with former Geordies Tim Visser and Fraser McKenzie.

After a day of mixed weather in Border Country, the game began in relatively dry conditions and both sides looked willing to throw the ball around and provide an entertaining evening. McGuigan, Ally Hogg and Noah Cato showed a willingness to run at their opponents while Simon Hammersley provided pace at the back for the Falcons.

The first score came just before the end of the first quarter with Socino kicking a penalty, capping a promising start that was full of speed and creativity. Edinburgh hit back though when Tonks sent a kick to the far left corner and Visser turned Catterick inside out, racing down the wing and touching down for an unconverted score.

Blair got the first Newcastle try of the evening, sniping over from close range after taking a quick penalty himself to keep an attack going. Socino knocked over the conversion. It was not all good news for the Falcons however – Barrow had to go off with a knock, and was replaced by Josh Furno.

Edinburgh began to impose themselves better on the game and two penalties by Tonks put the Scots into the lead at half-time.

The Falcons went on to lose Blair to injury early in the second forty, but Ruki Tipuna again showed glimpses of his talents with some good distribution.

Edinburgh put on most of the pressure at the start of the second half as the Falcons’ discipline went a bit AWOL, though it was from halfway that Visser scored his second try of the evening, following a quick lineout that led to the Dutchman racing through the Falcons and scoring centrally. Tonks hit the conversion.

Newcastle then had probably their best spell of the match, led by charges from replacements Jamie Helleur, Andy Saull and Scott Lawson. A close range penalty was sent to the corner rather than kicked, and from the dominant maul Scott Wilson dived to touch down on the line.

The Falcons continued to press for a winning try, helped by the introduction of the Tuilagi brothers adding power to the attack and noise to the crowd. However, Edinburgh managed to counter and the Geordies’ seemed to lose their heads, conceding several penalties. One of these was kicked by replacement Heathcote, sealing a 21-15 win for the Scottish side.