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The Prem
Newcastle (10) 17
Tries: Brocklebank, Hodge 2 Cons: Healy
Harlequins (45) 76
Tries: Dombrandt, Benson 3, Bradley 2, Murley, Riley, Smith, Hobson, Northmore, Staples Cons: Smith 10
Harlequins secured an easy bonus-point victory as they hammered Newcastle Red Bulls in a meeting of The Prem’s bottom two.
Quins collected the five points to close the gap on Gloucester in eighth, and the final Champions Cup spot, to just four points.
They ran in 12 tries, including seven by half-time as the home side were powerless to stop them.
Jamie Benson scored a hat-trick, Bryn Bradley got two and there was one apiece for Alex Dombrandt, Cadan Murley, Sam Riley, Marcus Smith, Will Hobson, Jamie Northmore and Jimmy Staples – who was making his debut.
Defeat for Newcastle leaves them 14 points adrift of their opponents and almost certain to finish last for a fourth straight season.
All they had to show for a miserable afternoon were tries from Adam Brocklebank and a double from Josh Hodge.
Newcastle have 23 new players arriving in the summer and on this evidence, the current campaign cannot end quickly enough as they shipped their most points in a Prem game since April 2024.
They had been slow out of the blocks in their previous two home games in The Prem as Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears had games quickly controlled the fixtures – and it was the same here.
Dombrandt scored from Quins’ first attack as he went over by the sticks and while Newcastle were a man down after a yellow card was shown to Ben Healy for a deliberate knock-on, Benson and Bradley added further tries.
Home prop Brocklebank got his side on the board, but it was a brief respite as Murley jogged in at the corner to wrap up the extra point after 24 minutes.
Hooker Riley took a tap-and-go and went past five tacklers to score, while a typical side-step from England fly-half Smith increased the lead.
Hodge went over after Benson had been sin-binned, but the second half followed a similar pattern.
Northmore went clear from halfway, two tries in three minutes completed Benson’s hat-trick and then Bradley got his second from the very next play.
By this point, the match had become very open and unstructured and Hodge profited to get his third try since bringing forward his move from Exeter.
The final score came from teenage replacement hooker Staples on his Prem debut as Quins racked up over 50 points away from home for the first time since October 2021.
‘Not happy with our standards’
Newcastle Red Bulls interim head coach Stephen Jones told BBC Radio Newcastle:
“We were not happy with our standards today. We fell off so many tackles, we lost so many collisions and allowed a very good side like Quins to move us around the park, which was very disappointing.
“We gifted Quins territory and possession and put ourselves under huge amounts of pressure from the onset.
“We will all have a good hard look at our performance and make sure going to Bath in six days’ time, we improve our standards, take our learnings on board and make sure our performance is improved.”
Newcastle: Healy; Wade, Hearle, Arnold, Hodge; Connon, Benitez Cruz; Brocklebank, McGuigan (c), Rewcastle, Hodgson, Baker, Gordon, Christie, Parsons.
Replacements: Fletcher, Connor Hancock, McCallum, Clarke, Mafi, Elliott, Beeckmans, Grayson.
Sin-bin: Healy (9)
Harlequins: Benson; Anderson, Northmore, Bradley, Murley; Smith, Friday; Hobson, Riley, Delgado, J Green, Williams, Cunningham-South, Driscoll, Dombrandt.
Replacements: Staples, Wenger, Streeter, Browne, Kenningham, W Evans, Porter, Kerr.
Sin-bin: Benson (40)
Referee: Harry Walbaum
