'We never practiced 2 yellow cards... It turned into a bit of a shambles'

Senior coach Tabai Matson felt Harlequins’ ability to take their chances was key to their 24-10 victory over Newcastle at Twickenham Stoop.

Gallagher Premiership champions Quins scored four tries to the Falcons’ one to record their third win in a row, despite having less time in possession during the course of the contest.

Newcastle have now lost their last eight league games, with their profligacy laid bare during a period in the second half where Harlequins had both Luke Northmore and Danny Care in the sin bin.

Matson, whose side went second in the table, said: “If you told me before the game we’d be getting a 24-10 scoreline, I’d have been over the moon.

“When we got opportunities, we took them and they probably didn’t.

“They’ll probably have two or three they’ll be really disappointed with, especially when we went down to 13 men, so ‘clinical’ is a good word.

“As always, there are bits of the performance we’re pretty unhappy with and that’s a good sign. To pick up a five-point win at home and be disappointed with parts of the game proves we’re travelling well.

“We actually practiced a yellow card (situation) with Danny off during the week, but we never practiced two yellow cards.

“It turned into a bit of a shambles, but we survived. That’s the main thing.

“It’s a tough old season – I think we’ve got one more home game, so a win like this just keeps us in the hunt for the top four.”

Tries from Huw Jones, Cadan Murley and Louis Lynagh allowed Harlequins to open up a 19-3 lead, with Newcastle only replying through a Will Haydon-Wood penalty.

Tom Marshall did pull back a converted try before half-time, but the only score of the second half came when Murley secured Quins their bonus point.

Newcastle head coach Dave Walder said: “We had that period when they were down to 13 men and it’s questionable whether it should have been a penalty try or not.

“A yard from the line, it’s a pretty good tackle (from Care) to stop an offload, but that’s by the by, it didn’t go our way and then from there we made a couple of poor decisions.

“Against a champion team, we conceded tries that were a bit too soft.

“We played pretty well in terms of creating things, but we just lacked a ruthless edge.

“They do things the right way with the crowd – it’s a sell-out, they engage with the fans and they play a great style of rugby.

“I thought we actually negated them at times and played some pretty good rugby ourselves, without actually finishing it off and, as a result, we paid the price.”