Substitute Noon goes close in late glory bid

Noon had little chance to shine in his 30-minute contribution, but with 30 seconds left he burst through the middle and looked capable of reaching the line.

Instead he passed more in hope than expectation and neither Ben Woods nor Mike McCarthy could grab the ball with the line at their mercy.

Newcastle would have been lucky to win a game which went from blood and thunder to thud and blunder.

Director of Rugby Rob Andrew described it as a "dreadful game," while also denying that he had been put under pressure by England to rest Noon, who had been named in the side.

"Disruptions at this time of year make life difficult," said Andrew. "Gloucester were slightly less awful than we were.

"We are worried about Mark Mayerhofler's fitness, so I wanted to give Joe Shaw half a game alongside Mathew Tait ahead of Friday's match against Leicester. The idea was that Jamie could come on and give us the impetus to win the game, which he almost did.

"We have made massive strides in the last two and a half months and have put in some great performances away from home. But at home we have been pretty average.

"Sometimes people have an off-day and unfortunately we had a few off key today and one of them was Matt Burke."

The Australian full back missed five penalties, although two of them were from halfway into the second half breeze.

Well-organised defences and ferocious tackling means tries are at a premium, and after relying on kicks to win 9-6 at London Irish last week the Falcons again failed to cross the line.

Skipper Colin Charvis led from the front and McCarthy gave a lively performance alongside him, justifying his inclusion ahead of Owen Finegan.

Charvis is one of the committee of senior Welsh players being blamed for bringing down coach Mike Ruddock and, perhaps fearing for his international future, the No 8 looked determined to make an impression.

The Falcons had won only one of their previous ten meetings with Gloucester, who began as though they had every intention of continuing their good run.

While the conflict up front was unremittingly ferocious, with the front rows engaging like enraged stags, there was also an early willingness by both sides to open up.

There was more rugby in the first five minutes than in the Falcons' last home game against Saracens, but it didn't last as the handling quickly gave way to aimless kicking.

Teessider James Simpson-Daniel had been named at centre by Gloucester, but was moved out to the left wing to accommodate the return of Terry Fanolua.

Simpson-Daniel was anxious to get involved from the start and featured in a good move which went right then left before Gloucester infringed five metres short.

Newcastle were struggling to win good ball, but Tait burst through the middle with his first touch, then from a penalty wide on the left Burke pulled his effort just wide.

He struck it well enough, however, to give himself the confidence to have a go with a straight kick from two metres inside his own half and cleared the bar comfortably.

Gloucester's left-footed fly half Ludovic Mercier missed a penalty from wide on the right, but the visitors ran back the long restart. After a surge by impressive lock Alex Brown, Mercier had the space to make a darting run and send a long pass to Fanolua, who squeezed in at the left corner.

Mercier converted, then a 40-metre penalty by Burke drifted wide before Gloucester piled on the pressure again.

Tom May, under pressure from a chip to the corner, flung a wild, bouncing pass to Burke, who knocked on near the posts and the Falcons were fortunate that Gloucester tried to over-elaborate from the scrum when they could have gone for a simple drop goal.

Newcastle relieved the pressure and winger Anthony Elliott, who had yet to receive a pass, chased a chip ahead by Burke and just failed to get the touchdown in the corner.

Gloucester came back again and looked likely to score until May intercepted and raced to halfway. Ten metres further on Gloucester were penalised and Burke made it 6-7 with the last kick of the half.

Mercier missed a penalty on the resumption, but when Newcastle won a line-out near their line they made a hash of their chance to clear. After driving the maul a few metres they opted for pick-and-drive and were penalised for not releasing.

Again they were let off as Gloucester kicked the penalty to touch, won the line-out then lost the ball in the maul.

Noon replaced Shaw with 30 minutes left and was swiftly followed on to the field by his England colleague Mike Tindall.

But the game had become scrappy and it proved to be another substitution which broke the deadlock as Woods made an impact with his first touch after replacing Cory Harris with 15 minutes left.

The former Durham University man burst off the back of a line-out with Charvis in support and when the ball was moved right Elliott appeared at outside centre and jinked almost to the line.

Tindall fell off-side and Burke put Newcastle 9-7 ahead.

But three minutes later Mercier replied when replacement hooker Andy Long was penalised for going in from the side.

The restart hit prop Terry Sigley's boot and flew to hooker Mefin Davies, who was in front of him but instinctively caught the ball to give away a penalty.

It looked like a gift for Newcastle and when Burke struck the penalty he looked to have capitalised, but the ball drifted fractionally wide of the left post.

With seven minutes left the Falcons' replacement scrum half James Grindal was penalised for not releasing and Mercier landed the 40-metre penalty to make full amends for his earlier misses.

Newcastle would be reasonably happy with the crowd of 7,284 considering they have another home match on Friday night, when there are only 1,000 tickets remaining for the visit of Leicester.

Result: Newcastle Falcons 9, Gloucester 13.