Falcons soar towards safety

Newcastle claimed a potentially crucial win in their struggle for Premiership survival by beating Harlequins 33-18.

Just five days after winning at relegation rivals Leeds, the Falcons finished strongly to see off the Londoners.

Quins took the lead after just three minutes with a series of forwards drives before the ball was spun wide for Tom Williams to cross in the corner and Rory Clegg converted for a 7-0 lead .

Newcastle hit back with a big scrum in front of the posts and Quins were penalised for Jimmy Gopperth to make it 7-3.

Quins were penalised again for taking the scrum down and there was another flare-up among the forwards - the third in 14 minutes - and both Falcons loose head Jon Golding and Quins tighthead James Johnston were sin-binned.

Ceri Jones joined his Quins team-mate in the bin in the 23rd minute when he deliberately got in the way of Micky Young's pass from an offside position as Newcastle attacked and Gopperth made it 7-6 with the penalty.

Quins were a little fortunate at a line-out when Clegg's kick through ricocheted off a Newcastle player but they made it count with series of drives which led to a penalty for Clegg to make it 10-6 on the half hour.

Back came Newcastle and when Dave Moore came into a ruck at the side, Gopperth fired over his third penalty six minutes from half-time.

Newcastle lost full back Jeremy Manning who was stretchered off just before the break with a leg injury and right on half-time, Quins dropped the scrum again and Gopperth made it 12-10 with his fourth successful kick at goal.

Clegg eased Quins back in front 13-12 early in the second half with another penalty, but then the hosts took over.

The breakthrough came when James Fitzpatrick charged through and Alex Gray picked up as he was tackled just short and dived over, Gopperth converting for 19-13.

Luke Fielden then quickly followed with another try for Newcastle, and Gopperth added the extras to stretch their lead to 26-13.

Quins hit back when Mike Brown scrambled over but Clegg missed the conversion and then with three minutes left Young dived over for the try and Gopperth's conversion made it 33-18.