Aviva Premiership: Newcastle Falcons beat Exeter Chiefs
Last Updated: 05/10/14 6:16pm
Newcastle ended their 20-game losing run in the Aviva Premiership with a 29-24 victory over Exeter Chiefs at Kingston Park.
Both sides scored three tries each and had their chances to earn a four-try bonus in an end-to-end second half but, after Noah Cato's 69th-minute score, the Falcons had the edge.
Fittingly, Falcons' man of the match Ally Hogg ended 10 minutes of almost unbearable tension for the home crowd - after Tom Catterick crossed over for a try - when he booted the ball into the stand from a scrum right on the Newcastle line to end that losing run.
It was a thrilling game from the start with the Falcons making a mess of the kick-off as the ball rebounded back on the Exeter side and eventually a penalty into the corner saw Thomas Waldrom driven over from the line-out.
It was Newcastle who reacted strongest and two penalties resulted from the boot of Juan Pablo Socino in the 10th and 12th minutes. But Tipuna then paid the price for trying to run the ball out of defence as he threw a wild pass which saw flanker Ben White snap it up and break through for Exeter's second try.
Almost immediately Socino released Hogg down the right and big number eight slipped the ball to Sinoti Sinoti, the winger scoring in the corner to make it 11-10 and then soon afterwards Socino landed a 50-metre penalty to increase the score to 14-10.
End-to-end
It was end-to-end stuff and when Newcastle made a mess of a line-out drive and turned the ball over, Exeter should have scored when they broke away.
But Henry Slade kicked ahead when keeping the ball in hand would have really stretched the Falcons, who were vastly relieved to see the ball run into touch.
The centre made up for his mistake when he scrambled over in the corner right on the stroke of half-time after some heavy-duty work by the Chiefs forwards and Gareth Steenson's conversion hit the bar to send Exeter take a narrow 15-14 lead into the break.
Sinoti's typically aggressive run at the start of the second half led to a penalty which Socino banged into the Exeter 22 where the Chiefs infringed at the line-out maul and Socino slotted the ball home.
But then three penalties from Steenson in the space of 13 minutes swung then game in Exeter's favour.
A careless offside from Tipuna's box kick allowed Steenson to kick in the 52nd minute and then the Exeter fly half kicked another five minutes later for handling in the ruck, followed by a third for a scrummage offence in the 65th.
But then Newcastle scored twice in three minutes to stand the game on its head. Adam Powell and Gonzalo Tiesi combined to send in Catterick under the posts before Socino converted to level the scores at 24-24.
Newcastle swept back through Rob Hawkins' superb offload to Tait down the left and Cato scored in the corner to make it 29-24 leaving Newcastle in the driving seat as the clock counted down.
