Match Centre: Newcastle Falcons 45-26 Leicester Tigers
Brett Connon was part of the winning Newcastle side
©Steve Haag
Newcastle Falcons 45-26 Leicester Tigers, Kingston Park
Mateo Carreras starred with a hat-trick as Newcastle Falcons completed a 45-26 victory in the latest round of the Gallagher Premiership at Kingston Park on Saturday.
Newcastle got off to a flying start with Trevor Davison and Tom Penny combined to send Mateo Carreras over the line in the left corner and Brett Connon kicked the conversion to make it 7-0.
The visitors were down to 14 players temporarily in the 15th minute as Freddie Steward was sin-binned for an obstruction before Newcastle doubled their lead from the next play when a five-metre scrum in the left corner was worked in-field and eventually sending Callum Chick over the line.
Connon kicked the conversion to extend Newcastle's lead to 14-0 but Leicester responded back in the 31st minute when England international Ben Youngs dived in the left corner for an unconverted try.
The home side had the strongest finish to the opening half with Carreras completing his second in the 35th minute after good work from Brett Connon and two minutes later he completed his hat-trick after intercepting a pass from Dan Kelly.
The Falcons had a lead of 28-5 but their momentum suffered a setback at the end of the opening half when Greg Peterson was yellow carded.
Leicester had a better start to the second half as Ollie Chessum dived from close range immediately after the restart and Charlie Atkinson kicked the conversion before Connon with a penalty kick of his own extended Newcastle's lead to 31-12.
Just as Newcastle returned back to full strength they scored their fifth try with Jamie Blamire dotting down at the back of a maul and Connon's conversion made it 38-12.
Carreras had to leave the field with cramps but Tommy Reffell's yellow card hampered the visitors' progress despite them scoring two more tries through Jimmy Gopperth and Sean Jansen sandwiched between a Matias Moroni try as Newcastle completed a comfortable win.
Team line up:
Newcastle: Penny, Radwan, Moroni, Orlando, Carreras, Connon, Stuart, Brocklebank, Blamire, Davison, Peterson, de Chaves, G Graham, Chick, Fearns
Reserves: Maddison, Mulipola, Palframan, Dalton, Marshall, Young, Schoeman, Obatoyinbo
Leicester: Steward, Potter, Scott, Kelly, Simmons, Atkinson, B Youngs, Cronin, Clare, Cole, Wells, Green, Chessum, Reffell, Liebenberg
Reserves: Taufete'e, Leatigaga, Heyes, Henderson, 0Ilione, Jansen, Van Poortvliet, Gopperth
