A 13-MINUTE hat-trick by winger Michael Stephenson carried Newcastle into the second round of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup yesterday.

They will face Treviso, surprise winners against Castres, after surviving a brief scare at the end of the first half to break the French resistance in sparkling style.

It was astonishing that Grenoble led 10-9 at half-time after spending 35 minutes cynically denying the Falcons as they were penned in their own half.

Trailing 19-12 from the home leg, Grenoble might have been expected to attack, but instead they did everything to slow down Newcastle's ball and were lucky not to have anyone yellow-carded until the 30th minute.

Incredibly it was while they were down to 14 men that they came back from 9-0 down to grab the lead, but four minutes after the interval Newcastle sent on Phil Godman at fly half and switched Jonny Wilkinson to inside centre.

The transformation was swift as 22-year-old Stephenson picked up the second hat-trick of his Newcastle career, the first coming in this competition against Cross Keys two years ago.

"We found last week that Grenoble gave us more space out wide than you get from Premiership defences," he said. "We could not exploit it over there because of the weather, but conditions were perfect today and we were excited about what we could do.

"But we only showed flashes of it. We were cruising at 9-0 up and suffered a lapse of concentration."

Stephenson denied that he felt he had something to prove after being left out of the England squad in midweek, saying: "There are a lot of good wingers around and with the squad being trimmed down I knew my turn would come to be left out.

"I got a phone call and went through a few points with Phil Larder, which I appreciated."

Director of Rugby Rob Andew was pleased with the contribution of Godman, an academy product, saying: "We are always trying to find game time for him.

"We could have left Jonny at ten and played Phil at 12, it doesn't make a lot of difference as they are all good footballers.

"It did allow us to push Jonny wider and probably improved our shape. Jonny is comfortable wherever he plays, but it gave him a bit more space for both his passing and his kicking.

"Looking at the two legs together we have done a good job and restored some pride after the Harlequins game. It gives us a very good platform for two crucial home games over the next two weeks against Sale and London Irish."

Hugh Vyvyan was outstanding for Newcastle at No 8, Hall Charlton was lively at scrum half and efforts to involve Epi Taione began to pay off in the second half.

With season ticket holders having to pay for European matches, the crowd was down to 4,000 in the rapidly developing stadium, but they roared in anticipation every time Taione got the ball.

Restored to his old position on the wing, he found no space as Newcastle were frustrated in the first half, but his first barnstorming run six minutes after the break led to the first try.

There was good handling from Vyvyan before Wilkinson flung out a long pass, which Stephenson took at pace to go through a gap and race over from 30 metres.

Four minutes later Wilkinson kicked from deep in his own half and when the Grenoble full back missed the ball Stephenson dribbled on to score.

His third try stemmed from Charlton seizing a loose ball 35 metres out and making good ground before the ball was moved left, where Liam Botham came into the line and committed a defender before putting Stephenson over.

Wilkinson added all the conversions to go his four penalties.

His third penalty was from under the posts after the Grenoble hooker was sin-binned for lying on the wrong side, but then Newcastle also gave away a penalty near their own posts.

Two Welshmen suddenly took a hand for Grenoble as fly half Cerith Rees kicked the penalty then former Neath lock Adam Jackson broke down the middle to set up a try for centre Ruckus Lubbe. Rees converted and, amazingly, Grenoble were ahead.

Newcastle still led on aggregate, but they knew they had to step up a gear to make sure of progress and for 20 minutes they did it in impressive fashion.

Result: Newcastle Falcons 37 Grenoble 17.