Newcastle Falcons 35 Montauban 0

NEWCASTLE claimed an emphatic victory over a poor Montauban side at Kingston Park to keep alive their slim hopes of qualifying for the European Challenge Cup quarter- finals.

The bonus-point victory moves the Falcons into second place in Pool Three on 11 points, but they need to beat leaders Brive at home and Italian minnows Petrarca away in the final two rounds and hope other results go their way.

Skipper Matt Burke opened the scoring with a try in the 18th minute and flanker Eni Gesinde's effort five minutes later gave the Falcons a 14-0 lead.

A yellow card for hooker Tony Testa did not help the visitors and Burke's second try on the half-hour handed Newcastle a 21-0 lead at half-time.

Winger Tom May supplied the bonus-point try and Director of Rugby John Fletcher cleared his bench with the game won.

No 8 Brent Wilson completed the rout with a try in the dying minutes and fly-half Toby Flood retained his perfect record with a fifth conversion.

Fletcher said: "I was pleased with pretty much everything I saw out there, bar one or two little precision errors at times.

"You will never play the perfect game, but we've convincingly beaten a good side. We got good set piece possession, used it pretty wisely and when we lost the ball we had good energy in getting it back again.

"We had slightly different objectives today in that tries were what really mattered, so we were going for touch from penalties in their 22.

We also showed tremendous character in defence."

Jamie Noon limped off after 11 minutes with a twisted ankle and Fletcher added: "We'll have to wait for the medical report, but it was bad enough for a tough player to come off the field so you would have to say it looks unlikely he will play down at Gloucester on Friday and may mean a week or two out.

"It's a very tough Christmas programme for us in the next two to three weeks, but these are the challenges you have to relish."