Rob Vickers try moves Falcons off foot of table

A Rob Vickers try two minutes from time helped Newcastle snatched a 26-19 victory over Harlequins at Kingston Park to give them their second Aviva Premiership win of the season and move the Falcons up to 11th in the league standings.

The Falcons came back from 19-10 down against a rotated Quins side in a frenetic finish that saw Newcastle come out on top thanks to three penalties from the boot of Andy Goode and Vickers' drive-over try which Goode converted for victory.

Due to international demands, seven of Harlequins' starting fifteen players were academy graduates but despite all the changes they dominated the opening 10 minutes.

Marland Yarde sparked the early pressure with an electric run into the Falcons' 22, but it was Newcastle who scored first with an 11th-minute forwards try.

Quins Lock James Horwill was lucky to escape the sin-bin after clearing out Sean Robinson at a line-out, but his error meant Craig Willis was able to slot a long kick into the corner and from the subsequent lineout, Nili Latu and Scott Lawson were driven over for the try with Lawson the man to touchdown. Willis made it 7-0 with the conversion.

Alex Tait's weaving run split the Quins defence before being brought down by Rob Buchanan, but Horwill was again at fault as he clumsily went over the ball to give Falcons a second penalty which Willis sent over to make it 10-0 in the 20th minute.

Newcastle did not miss a tackle throughout the first half but shot themselves in the foot right on the stroke of half-time when Willis missed touch with a simple penalty clearance and Quins ran it back with Dave Ward breaking a number of tackles before the resulting space was capitalised on by Charlie Walker who finishing handedly in the corner. Nick Evans converted to reduce the deficit to 10-7. 

The try changed the face of the game with Quins running it out of defence from the restart and Walker's chip and chase led to a penalty with Simon Hammersley failing to roll away in the tackle. Evans went to the corner, another penalty followed, and another line-out saw Ward driven over for a second try for the visitors in the 43rd minute.

And Quins were to expose the shell-shocked home defence again almost immediately with George Lowe offloading to Walker before the winger cut back inside to leave the Falcons defence in the dust and score his second of the afternoon. Evans' conversion made it 19-10.

Newcastle were being turned over at the breakdown with frustrating ease, with centre Harry Sloan proving to be a particularly disruptive force and Quins should have had a fourth try but the Falcons somehow turned it over themselves and eventually won a penalty deep in the Quins 22 which Goode, who had entered the game less than two minutes earlier, kicked to bring the score to 19-13 and then a minute later he hammered over another from 50 metres to cut Quins' lead to just three points.

Six minutes later it was level with Goode hammering over a 45-metre shot after Horwill's high tackle on Powell.

Newcastle launched a massive series of drives and with two minutes left prop Vickers was driven over, referee Luke Pearce giving it after going to the television match official and Goode, of course, converted from wide out for a win.