Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Harlequins have scored 128 points against Newcastle this season
Harlequins cruised to a dominant bonus-point victory, hammering Newcastle Red Bulls in a clash between The Prem’s bottom two sides. The visitors collected five points to cut the gap on eighth-placed Gloucester, and the final Champions Cup spot, to just four points.
Quins ran in 12 tries, with seven coming in the first half as the hosts had no answer. Jamie Benson claimed a hat-trick, Bryn Bradley scored twice, and there were tries for Alex Dombrandt, Cadan Murley, Sam Riley, Marcus Smith, Will Hobson, Jamie Northmore, and debutant Jimmy Staples.
Newcastle’s defeat leaves them 14 points behind their opponents and all but certain to finish last for a fourth consecutive season. Their only scores came from a try by Adam Brocklebank and a double from Josh Hodge.
With 23 new players arriving in the summer, this current campaign cannot end soon enough for Newcastle, who conceded their most points in a Prem game since April 2024. As in their previous two home matches, they were slow out of the blocks, allowing Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears to dictate early play – and it was the same story here.
Dombrandt opened the scoring from Quins’ first attack, touching down near the posts. With Newcastle reduced to 14 men after Ben Healy’s yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, Benson and Bradley added further tries. Home prop Brocklebank briefly responded, but Murley jogged in at the corner to secure the bonus point after 24 minutes. Hooker Riley took a tap penalty and powered past five tacklers to score, before England fly-half Smith extended the lead with a characteristic side-step.
Hodge crossed after Benson was sin-binned, but the second half followed a similar pattern. Northmore broke clear from halfway, Benson completed his hat-trick with two tries in three minutes, and Bradley grabbed his second from the very next play. The match became increasingly open and unstructured, and Hodge profited to claim his third try since accelerating his move from Exeter. The final score came from teenage replacement hooker Staples on his Prem debut, as Quins surpassed 50 points away from home for the first time since October 2021.
Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore said: “It was needed obviously. I thought our first hour of rugby was really mature and we stuck to the task. It’s just a good shot in the arm; we’ve obviously been toiling away with the same group of players. Injury-wise, we don’t have much room to rotate at the moment. I reflected on the Sale game and thought we looked really tired and fatigued in that one. We had a good rest after that week and are starting to get some troops back on the field. I’m just pleased for the boys – they’re putting in so much work.”
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, 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 pressure from the onset. We will all have a good hard look at our performance and make sure that going to Bath in six days’ time, we improve our standards, take our learnings on board, and ensure our performance is improved.”