Tight tussle: Quins beaten at the death in LV= Cup semi-final
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Newcastle booked their place in this year's LV= Cup final after beating Harlequins 21-20 thanks to a last-gasp try from Tane Tu'ipulotu at The Stoop.
In the last play of the match, the Tongan centre finished off a flowing move to deny Quins what seemed like a certain victory and ensure the hosts' 12-match winning run on home soil went up in smoke.
While Tu'ipulotu will be regarded as the hero in tomorrow's headlines, it was a man-of-the-match performance from fly-half Jimmy Gopperth which made the victory possible.
The Newcastle pivot ended the match with sixteen points after another near-flawless display with the boot, while he also dotted down for a try.
Quins, leading 13-6 at half-time, dominated territory and possession for almost the entire game and looked to have done enough when Mike Brown's 70th minute try put them ahead.
However, Newcastle refused to surrender and reached the final of this competition for a seventh time thanks to Tu'ipulotu's try at the death.
The scorers:
For Harlequins:
Tries: Dickson, Brown
Cons: Clegg 2
Pens: Clegg 2
For Newcastle:
Tries: Gopperth, Tu'ipulotu
Pens: Gopperth 3
Cons: Gopperth
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Williams, 13 George Lowe, 12 Jordan Turner Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Karl Dickson, 8 Chris Robshaw, 7 Will Skinner, 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 Pete Browne, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 John Andress, 2 Matt Cairns, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Ceri Jones, 18 Mark Lambert, 19 Tomas Vallejos, 20 Chris York, 21 Dave Moore, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta.
Newcastle: 15 Alex Tait, 14 Danny Williams, 13 Luke Eves, 12 James Fitzpatrick, 11 Gcobani Bobo, 10 Jimmy Gopperth9 Micky Young, 8 Ally Hogg, 7 Brent Wilson, 6 Tim Swinson, 5 Andrew Van der Heijden, 4 James Hudson, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Matt Thompson, 1 Jon Golding
Replacements: 16 Rob Vickers, 17 Grant Shiells, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 Filipo Levi, 20 Mark Wilson, 21 Hall Charlton, 22 Tane Tu'ipulotu, 23 Tom Catterick.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
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