Gloucester subdue Newcastle


Gloucester made it four Premiership wins in a row when they stormed to a 29-7 victory over Newcastle at Kingston Park on Friday evening.

Tries from Andy Symons, Jeremy Thrush, Henry Purdy and Gareth Denman, proved too much for the Falcons who scored through Mark Wilson.

The result means Gloucester have won back-to-back games for the first time since the turn of the year 2015 after beating Bath in their last Premiership match.

Newcastle, meanwhile, have slipped to their fourth successive defeat and will want to stop their worrying slide.

Gloucester were rewarded for having the better of the opening exchanges when Symons went over after Purdy was ankle tapped just short of the line after the former had done well to make the break off a Cherry and Whites' lineout move. Billy Twelvetrees added the extras.

The visitors then doubled their lead through a well-worked lineout move straight from the training ground in which they went to front of the lineout where Thrush bashed over from 20 yards out before anyone could stop him. Twelvetrees made no mistake with the conversion for a 24-0 lead after 24 minutes.

And the Cherry and Whites had a third when Purdy kicked the ball ahead not once but twice before collecting his own chip and dotting down in a superb piece of individual play. Twelvetrees missed the conversion this time but the visitors still led 19-0.

Newcastle crucially got their try just before the half-time break, which gave them a psychological boost going in to the interval. It was Wilson who went over at the back of a well-worked lineout driving maul from the Falcons. Joel Hodgson added the extras as the Falcons went in to the interval trailing 19-7.

Gloucester won the ball from their own kick-off to the second half and put together the phases before Newcastle number eight Nili Latu was penalised for a high tackle. Twelvetrees slotted the resulting penalty to make the scoreline 22-7 to Gloucester.

Twelvetrees was then sin-binned after a cynical deliberate knockdown when the Falcons looked set to score. But Gloucester did very well to not concede any points during this period in which they were down a man.

Substitute prop Denman secured the Cherry and Whites' bonus-point try when he burst over from close range after Tom Hudson's clean break and excellent running line did the damage initially. Twelvetrees added the two points with Gloucester leading 29-7 with ten minutes to go, which was how it finished.

The scorers:

For Newcastle:
Try: Wilson
Con: Hodgson

For Gloucester:
Tries: Symons, Thrush, Purdy, Denman
Cons: Twelvetrees 3
Pen: Twelvetrees

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Alex Tait, 13 Belisario Agulla, 12 Juan Pablo Socino, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Joel Hodgson, 9 Sam Stuart, 8 Nili Latu, 7 Will Welch (c), 6 Mark Wilson, 5 Sean Robinson, 4 Will Witty, 3 Jon Welsh, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Rob Vickers
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Sami Mavinga, 18 Scott Wilson, 19 Calum Green, 20 Gary Graham, 21 Ruaridh Dawson, 22 Toby Flood, 23 Chris Harris

Gloucester: 15 Tom Hudson, 14 Henry Purdy, 13 Andy Symons, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Billy Burns, 9 Willi Heinz (c), 8 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Lewis Ludlow, 6 Jake Polledri, 5 Jeremy Thrush, 4 Tom Savage, 3 John Afoa, 2 James Hanson, 1 Josh Hohneck
Replacements: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Paddy McAllister, 18 Gareth Denman, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Freddie Clarke, 21 Ben Vellacott, 22 Lloyd Evans, 23 Mark Atkinson

Referee: JP Doyle
Assistant referees: Tim Wigglesworth, Peter Allan
TMO: Claire Hodnett

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