European Challenge Cup: Newcastle hold off Stade Francais for 30-23 win
Last Updated: 05/12/14 10:37pm
Newcastle tightened their stranglehold on European Challenge Cup Pool 3 with an entertaining 30-23 bonus-point victory over Stade Francais at Kingston Park.
Chris Harris, Simon Hammersley, Sean Robinson and Noah Cato all ran in tries as the Falcons registered a third straight victory in the competition.
Home fly-half Tom Catterick should have done better than fire an early penalty wide from the 22 - leaving South Africa stalwart Morne Steyn to open the scoring with a penalty of his own 10 minutes in.
Catterick was off target with his second attempt too but Newcastle opened their try account in the 25th minute when Harris capitalised on a line-out steal in Stade territory to cut through the scrambling defence and crash over, with Catterick adding a tough conversion.
Steyn cut the deficit with his second penalty but a second five-pointer for the hosts was not long in coming as Catterick and Alex Tait combined to send Hammersley over in the corner. By this time, Catterick had found his kicking boots to add the extras from the touchline.
Another precision penalty from Steyn slashed the half-time lead to 14-9 and the French side moved ahead early in the second period when Julien Tomas raced on to a clever chip to score - only for a Catterick penalty and a powerful finish from Robinson to establish a 22-16 lead for Newcastle.
Stade would not lie down and slick work from Digby Ioane allowed Krisnan Inu to silence the home support with another try - but back came the Falcons again and Catterick had already booted another penalty by the time Cato punished a knock-on with five minutes left to seal victory.
Elsewhere in the competition, Grenoble routed Rovigo 68-10 to stay in contention in Pool 1, while Oyonnax stunned Brive 30-22 to keep their surprise assault on Pool 5 well and truly in motion.
