THE pleasure of going top of the Zurich Premiership at Kingston Park yesterday was somewhat lost on Rob Andrew. Newcastle’s director of rugby, a member of the team when Newcastle were last the leaders — 1998, when they took the title — was fulminating against Harlequins, the match officials and anyone else who, in his view, dragged the spectacle of professional rugby down to an unacceptable level.
“I thought it was a dreadful game,” Andrew said. “The officiating, the Harlequins approach to the game, the cynicism of their approach spoiled it as a spectacle and we won’t help professional rugby if we keep producing that sort of game. They were offside all day, we knew they would be and, from their point of view, they did it well.”
Sean Davey, refereeing his first Premiership game of the season, gave Newcastle a penalty count of 18-8, sent two Harlequins players to the sin-bin (and, late in the day, Mike McCarthy from Newcastle) and awarded the home side the penalty try that allowed them to nose ahead. It was hard to see what more he could have done, but these two clubs have a history of cussed encounters which, more often than not in the last four years, have gone Harlequins’ way.
Andrew has made his feelings known to Colin High, the RFU’s elite referees manager, and his mood was not improved by the possibility that Mark Mayerhofler, his New Zealand centre, has a broken right leg. He even contended that Jonny Wilkinson, his captain, had been advised by the referee that the game would end if he dropped out into touch from Jeremy Staunton’s missed penalty in the sixth minute of time added on; but Wilkinson kicked out on the full so a scrum was called on the Newcastle 22, the scrum behind which Staunton eventually dropped for what would have been the winning goal had the ball not fallen short.
Yet the fact remained that the Harlequins defence, with a makeshift pairing in midfield, never faltered and the visitors scored two delightful tries. After Wilkinson (who missed his first two kicks at goal in the cold, swirling breeze) and Staunton exchanged penalties, Newcastle were turned over and Staunton’s long, wide pass was picked up off the ground by Gavin Duffy, who beat both Wilkinson and Matt Burke before sending George Harder over.
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A further penalty by Staunton and two from Wilkinson gave Harlequins a four-point interval lead, by which time Luke Sherriff had received his yellow card for slowing down the ball at a ruck. As he returned, Simon Miall replaced him for offside play at a maul, leaving Harlequins with 14 men for the third quarter.
Newcastle’s penalty try came after a close-range lineout. Harlequins had been penalised once five metres from their own line and though Semo Sititi and Colin Charvis were held, the referee finally lost patience with Harlequins’ offside play. Wilkinson’s conversion gave Newcastle the lead and his fifth penalty gave them a hint of daylight but Harlequins had the character to fight back.
SCORERS: Newcastle: Penalty try: 57min. Conversion: Wilkinson. Penalty goals: Wilkinson 5 (18, 29, 40+4, 51, 72). Harlequins: Tries: Harder (23), Duffy (41). Conversion: Staunton. Penalty goals: Staunton 3 (22, 33, 79).
SCORING SEQUENCE (Newcastle first): 3-0, 3-3, 3-10, 6-10, 6-13, 9-13 (half-time), 9-18, 12-18, 19-18 22-18, 22-21.
NEWCASTLE: M Burke; T May, J Noon, M Mayerhofler (rep: D Walder, 20min), M Stephenson; J Wilkinson, H Charlton (rep: J Grindal, 60); I Peel, A Long (rep: M Thompson, 62), M Ward (rep: J Isaacson, 41), S Grimes, C Hamilton (rep: L Gross, 41), M McCarthy (sin-bin 75-80+5), C Charvis, S Sititi.
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HARLEQUINS: G Duffy; U Monye, G Harder, A Reay, S Keogh; J Staunton, S So’oialo; C Jones (rep: M Worsley, 62), A Tiatia, J Dawson, K Rudzki, S Miall (sin bin 51-61; rep: R Winters, 61), L Sherriff (sin-bin, 39-49), A Vos, A Diprose.
Referee: S Davey.