Leicester’s Vereniki Goneva breaks spirited Newcastle with hat-trick

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/06/leicester-newcastle-premiership-match-report

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Anything Northampton can do, Leicester feel they can do, if not necessarily better these days, then at least as well. And so the Tigers saw the Saints’ left-winger score a hat-trick the evening before and proceeded to lay one on for their own. Vereniki Goneva’s three tries, all claimed in the third quarter, broke the back of a lively Newcastle side and paved the way for a bonus-point home win to match that registered by their great rivals down the road. A solid opening weekend, then, for the East Midlands.

Not that this win will set alarm bells ringing quite as loudly as did Northampton’s demolition of Gloucester. Newcastle more than played their part in a game that simmered for 40 minutes before lighting up in the second half. Indeed, Dean Richards, once a hero in these parts and now the Falcons director of rugby, was seething at the way he felt his side were refereed out of the game.

“There were a lot of contentious decisions,” he said, “and none of them went in our favour. We’ll look at ourselves, and hopefully the officials will look at their game as well. I thought we fronted up, but we’re bitterly disappointed we didn’t get our just rewards. It was taken out of our hands.”

Richards cited, inevitably, the scrum as a particular bone of contention – specifically the angle of Logovi’i Mulipola’s scrummaging – and also referred repeatedly to the position of Tom Youngs in the build-up to Goneva’s third try on the hour, a length-of-the-field gallop off an interception. It was a try that summed up the Falcons’ day.

Their short passing was a delight as they pressed deep in Leicester’s 22. That was when Richards felt Youngs infringed, forcing Ruki Tipuna to crab across and send out what he hoped would be a try-scoring pass. It would have been for whoever took it. Sadly for Tipuna, it was Goneva who read it, before running the length, pursued by the excellent Sinoti Sinoti. That put Leicester 31-10 up – game over.

It was harsh on Newcastle, who are intent, if this showing is anything to go by, on playing a fast, expansive game. Sinoti will cause plenty of problems this season, as will the explosive Argentine Juan Pablo Socino, who also kicks their goals, and the elegant young full-back Simon Hammersley.

Newcastle scored the game’s first try, in the first minute of the second half. Freddie Burns, on his debut, kicked long for touch, but Sinoti fielded it and slipped the ball to Hammersley who streaked away, setting Richard Mayhew for the line. The try pulled Newcastle back to within two points, having turned around 12-3 in arrears.

But the Falcons’ luck turned sour immediately, when Manu Tuilagi’s off-load bounced freakishly off Phil Godman’s shoulder to leave Goneva with a simple touchdown for his first. His second a few minutes later was rather more beautiful, Burns bewitching a couple of forwards to put him over by the posts.

A 14-point deficit did not do Newcastle justice, but that intercept try 10 minutes later was crueller still. The pushover try that followed six minutes after that from a five-metre scrum – the one score Richards was displeased with his side for conceding – earned Leicester the bonus point and all that they could have asked for.

Newcastle had the final say with a try from a driven lineout, just to show they can play things tight as well. On this showing, they will have ambitions beyond mere survival. Leicester, meanwhile, were not at their best but emerged, fairly typically, with the full five points.