Latest
Overview
Season so far
Tournament record
Après être passés tout près de l'exploit sur la pelouse du CA Brive
Newcastle Falcons will become the first team to entertain a Russian side in the Challenge Cup when they host Enisei-STM at Kingston Park and Kiwi lock Sean Robinson admits it is going to be a step into the unknown him for and his team mates.
Usually a big part of the week in the build-up to a European game is taken up with video analysis and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. But Enisei-STM slipped into Tyneside very much under the radar with very little video of them.
What they proved in their opening game in pool 1, when they hosted the Guinness PRO12 leaders Connacht Rugby in the Siberian outpost of Krasnoyarsk, is that they are highly competitive. They eventually went down 31-14, but earned huge praise for the way they played.
“We don’t have much footage of them so they are a bit of an unknown quantity. We’ll have to do our analysis on what we have got,” Robinson told Falcons TV.
“The main focus has been on ourselves again and bringing the same intensity and energy that we had last week throughout training and the game. We have to respect our opponents.
“They’ve qualified and deserve to be here, so we will prepare just as hard. If we can bring the same level of performance as he had in Brive, we have to be looking for a win.”
The Russians had to travel 5,500km to arrive in the North East and will be keen to build on their Challenge Cup debut.
Match Facts
- Newcastle Falcons have never lost to a team from outside the Six Nations (W10), scoring more than 50 points per game in six of their 10 wins.
- Newcastle Falcons will be out to avoid consecutive home losses for the first time in their Challenge Cup history (47 matches).
- Teams from outside the Six Nations have faced teams from England on 47 occasions in the Challenge Cup and lost the last 46 of those games.
- The only win that a team from outside the Six Nations has ever registered over an English side was Dinamo-Bucuresti’s 19-18 victory over Bristol Rugby in the first ever such encounter in 1996.
?Toujours en course pour se qualifier en quart de finale de l'European Rugby Challenge Cup
Marcus Watson ran in four tries to equal the Newcastle Falcons Challenge Cup record as the English Premiership side put Russian newcomers Enisei-STM to the sword with a 55-7 victory.
The temperatures may have been 20 degrees warmer than in their debut against Connacht Rugby in Krasnayarsk, but the Russians weren’t able to put a freeze on the Falcons’ scoring as they ended the game with nine tries.
Watson, whose younger brother Anthony enjoyed a Champions Cup win with Bath the previous day, enjoyed himself from start to finish as he scored tries in the 17th, 46th, 74th and 78th minutes to equal the record set by former England Sevens star Ollie Phillips against Centransa El Salvador in the 2007/08 season at Kingston Park.
Watson wasn’t the only player to pick up a hat-trick, and not even the first. He was beaten to that landmark in the game by No 8 Mark Wilson, who scored in the 15th, 25th and 30th minutes.
There were also two tries for Zach Kibirige as the Falcons hit back from their narrow defeat in Brive in round one to keep themselves very much in the hunt in Pool 1. They now have to take on Pool leaders Connacht Rugby in the back-to-back games next month.
As well as their nine tries, Tom Catterick also kicked five conversions for the home side. The try for Enisei-STM came from Denis Simplikevich.
LIVE - TEST - Commentary