Connacht flounder under Newcastle's Flood

Newcastle 23 Connacht 3

England Under-21 fly-half Toby Flood steered Newcastle into the European Challenge Cup semi-finals on a wet and dismal evening at Kingston Park.

Flood kicked three penalties and two conversions and scored a crucial try with former Connacht player Mike McCarthy scoring the other to send the Irish side tumbling out of the quarter-final.

Connacht started brightly enough on a gluepot Kingston Park pitch but lost the ball on edge of the Falcons’ 22 and Newcastle swept away through Anthony Elliott and Tom May to force an eighth minute penalty which Flood landed for a 3-0 lead.

The same player stole the ball in a midfield tackle, hoofed it downfield and beat Andrew Farley and David Gannon to the touchdown in the corner and then converted from wide out to give the home side a 10-0 lead in the 17th minute.

And Flood then added a 22nd-minute penalty when David Gannon was caught going over the ball.

Paul Warwick missed a chance to get Connacht on the board when Hall Charlton was caught in hanging on in the tackle but the fly-half’s kick at goal was just wide in the 29th minute.

Connacht ad to wait until the 37th minute to get on the scoreboard through Warwick’s straightforward penalty for offside.

But the visitors were lucky to survive a charging run by Matthew Burke just before half-time with the pass from Flood fractionally forward and the full-back close to scoring.

The conditions got worse with the rain sheeting down in the second half and Gavin Williams’ kick ahead had Anthony Williams scrambling back to touch down for a 22 drop-out.

But then McCarthy broke his former team-mates’ hearts when drove over for a try from lineout close to the line and Flood’s conversion made it 20-3 in the 64th minute.

It was constant pressure on the Connacht line as Newcastle’s stranglehold on possession continued and Michael Swift was sin-binned just four minutes after coming on for deliberate offside, with Flood maintaining his 100% record with the penalty for 23-3.

Connacht did finish with a flourish charging into the Newcastle 22 but they were unable to get enough men there in numbers and the Falcons closed them down to book their place in the semi-finals.