Winless season confirmed for Newcastle who fall short to Gloucester in final round

Newcastle Falcons sank to a 54-14 loss to Gloucester away from home confirming the unwanted title of going winless this season. 

Gloucester scored eight tries on the day through number eight Zach Mercer, Chris Harris, Charlie Atkinson, Olli Thornley, Sebastian Blake, Jonny May, Alex Hearle and Josh Hathaway with Caolan Englefield kicking five of the conversions. 

While for the visitors they only managed two tries through Jamie Blamire and Matias Moroni as Brett Connon kicked both conversions in a disappointing end to the season. 

Click here for teams and scorers

Newcastle began brightly but it was their opponents who opened the scoring. Their first attack saw acres of space created for Charlie Atkinson to race into the visitors’ 22 from where Mercer was on hand to force his way over.

Englefield converted before Gloucester scored an excellent second try. Deep inside his own half, Harris chipped ahead for Hathaway to collect before returning the ball to Harris, who ran 35 metres to the line.

Minutes later, Newcastle’s early woes continued when the hosts took advantage of a couple of favourable bounces for Atkinson to win the race to touchdown, with a third conversion from Englefield giving Gloucester a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

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Newcastle needed a swift response and got one when Blamire finished off a driving line-out, but Gloucester soon picked up their bonus-point try when a break from Englefield set up Thorley.

However Falcons kept in contention at half-time with a try from Moroni but they still trailed 26-14 at the interval.

A minute after the restart, Gloucester extended that advantage when Blake crashed over from a driving line-out before May celebrated his final home appearance for the club with his side’s sixth to extinguish any Newcastle’s hopes of a shock result.

Ahead of next week’s European Challenge Cup final against the Sharks, Gloucester replaced some of their leading lights, with skipper Lewis Ludlow and impressive scrum-half Englefield both departing as Argentina hooker Socino came on for his final appearance at Kingsholm.

Socino brought the crowd to their feet with a 30-metre burst before Falcons lock Tim Cardall was sin-binned with eight minutes remaining.

The home side immediately capitalised with a try from Hearle and then another from Hathaway to emphasize their superiority over a spirited but limited Newcastle.

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Gloucester v Newcastle Falcons

The teams

Gloucester: 15 Josh Hathaway, 14 Jonny May, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Charlie Atkinson, 9 Caolan Englefield, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Lewis Ludlow (c), 6 Ruan Ackermann, 5 Freddie Thomas, 4 Freddie Clarke, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Seb Blake, 1 Jamal Ford-Robinson
Replacements: 16 Santi Socino, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Ciaran Knight, 19 Albert Tuisue, 20 Jack Clement, 21 Stephen Varney, 22 Alex Hearle, 23 Jake Morris

Newcastle: 15 Louis Brown, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Ben Redshaw, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart, 8 Callum Chick (c), 7 Guy Pepper, 6 Sam Cross, 5 John Hawkins, 4 Tim Cardall, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Adam Brocklebank
Replacements: 16 Bryan Byrne, 17 Mark Dormer, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Adam Scott, 20 Freddie Lockwood, 21 James Elliott, 22 Rory Jennings, 23 Oli Spencer

Venue: Kingsholm
Kick-off: 15:05 BST (14:05 GMT)
Referee: Sara Cox
Assistant Referees: Joe James, Peter Allan
TMO: Dean Richards