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Newcastle Falcons half-back Joel Hodgson
Newcastle Falcons welcome Edinburgh Rugby to Kingston Park this Sunday as they look to bounce back from their 31-13 defeat last weekend, live on BT Sport at 15:15 (GMT).
- Newcastle have won five of their last seven home games in the tournament with defeats by the Dragons (2001) and Leinster Rugby (2002).
- Falcons got the better of Edinburgh at home in the 2004/05 season by 34-24 which is their second highest total in the tournament (42 v Toulouse in November 2001).
- Newcastle are one of just two sides to have led at half-time in all three games this season (also Racing 92).
- Edinburgh have lost six of their last seven away games (W1), failing to score more than 16 points on each occasion.
- Edinburgh’s Bill Mata has made 69 carries so far, the most of any player this season.
Edinburgh Rugby put in a superb second half display to defeat Newcastle Falcons 21-8 at Kingston Park on Sunday, taking control of Heineken Champions Cup Pool 5 in the process.
Sinoti Sinoti opened the scoring for the home side but it was fantastic play out wide from Simon Hammersley – who made the difficult catch and offload – releasing Vereniki Goneva who found Sinoti and the winger did the rest, diving over for the first try. Fly-half Toby Flood could only push his conversion wide.
Newcastle came under pressure after the opening score, and were penalised for not rolling away, giving Jaco van der Walt a first sight at the posts. The South African made no mistake and cut the gap.
The home side then forced Edinburgh to retreat inside their own 22, working the ball through the hands before referee Alexandre Ruiz blew his whistle as the Scottish side strayed offside and Flood kicked the penalty between the sticks.
Goneva x Sinoti 🔥
Newcastle's flying wingers link up beautifully to give the Falcons the lead 👊 pic.twitter.com/XqGrwYLzTs
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) December 16, 2018
The away side had the best of the last 10 minutes of the first half, powering their way close to the try line but were stopped short so referee Ruiz went back to the initial offside advantage.
From that, Van der Walt had the simple task of slotting over the kick in front of the posts for what was the final points of the first half.
Edinburgh dominated second half proceedings and deservedly took the lead on 42 minutes when James Johnstone dotted down after a delicious kick in behind the Newcastle line. Van der Walt tucked away the conversion and he extended the lead on the hour mark when the away side won a crucial scrum penalty in kicking range.
How good was that!? 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/HCksiVtnEi
— Edinburgh Rugby (@EdinburghRugby) December 16, 2018
The away side continued to take control and killed off any hope of a Newcastle comeback with seven minutes to play when the ball was spread wide and play reached Duhan van der Merwe who powered clear for a second Edinburgh try of the afternoon.
Pool 5 leaders Edinburgh Rugby will travel to face RC Toulon in Round 5 while Newcastle Falcons will take on Montpellier.
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