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Newcastle Falcons winger Dan Marshall says their European Rugby Challenge Cup clash with Lyon is a must-win game. - 16/12/2016 10:15
Newcastle Falcons winger Dan Marshall says their European Rugby Challenge Cup clash with Lyon is a must-win game.
The Falcons are third in Pool 2, five points behind second-placed Lyon after losing 42-12 to the French side last Friday.
And Marshall, who played in the defeat in France, knows the importance of part two of the double header.
He said: “We want to win trophies this year, we said that at the start of the season. We want to get wins so we are targeting getting out of the group and seeing how far we can get in the competition.
“We want four points, five if we can, we definitely need to win to get through. We want to put in a strong performance and get a result.
“We have had a look at the defeat and picked up on what we need to improve on and what we can exploit this weekend.
“We want to bounce back and show them we can be dominant over here – we want Kingston Park to be a fortress.”
Lyon had lost four successive Top 14 games prior to hosting Newcastle last week, but made easy work of the Premiership side.
Marshall, a homegrown Falcons player, will hope to start the game at Kingston Park after playing the last 23 minutes in France.
The 19-year-old added: “When you come off the bench you are trying to make a positive impact, you want to help. Hopefully I have done that and can start this weekend and show off what I can do.
“We’ve turned this into a tough place to come, especially in the Premiership, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage.
“It’s windy and an artificial pitch so we can use that at the weekend to get a win.”
Newcastle Falcons did the Ospreys a huge favour as they held Lyon to one bonus-point as they romped to a 48-29 win in Pool 2. - 18/12/2016 17:03
Newcastle Falcons did the Ospreys a huge favour as they held Lyon to one bonus-point as they romped to a 48-29 win in Pool 2.
The Falcons had tied up their own bonus-point by half-time and went on to score six tries as they overturned their 42-12 defeat in Lyon the previous weekend to stay in the hunt for a quarter-final place.
The Ospreys lead by nine points and need only one more win from their two remaining pool matches to guarantee themselves a quarter-final slot. They host Lyon in Round 5 before travelling to Kingston Park in the final round.
The visitors took the lead with a sixth minute penalty from Jerome Porical, but then they got hit by hat-trick of home tries in a blistering seven minute spell. Two of them fell to Argentine centre Juan-Pablo Socino and the other one came from scrum half Tane Takulua.
Falcons outside half Joel Hodgson, who had replied to Porical’s early penalty with one of his own, converted all three tries and then crossed for the bonus-point try on the stroke of half-time. He added the conversion and kicked another penalty to take his first-half tally to 19 points as the Falcons led 34-10.
Lyon showed their mettle by grabbing one try in the first half, through wing Thibaut Regard, and then closed the gap to 17 points with a second from centre Pierre-Louis Barassi a minute after the re-start. Porical converted both scores.
Newcastle picked up a fifth try through wing Zach Kibiridge, which Hodgson again converted, but his opposite number, Franck Romanet, responded with 14 minutes to play to make it 41-22. That left the Frenchmen chasing a possible try bonus-point.
They eventually got it, thanks to a last gasp effort from Paul Bonnefond, but only after the Falcons had claimed their sixth score from Callum Chick.
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