Saints finish 2024 in style as they cruise to flawless win against Falcons

It was an occasion full of festive cheer for Phil Dowson's men at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens as they bagged the try bonus point inside 15 minutes before pushing on to secure a flawless victory.

It was a crucial success in the final game of a year in which Saints were crowned Premiership champions.

But with much work to do to defend that league title, the black, green and gold knew they really needed maximum points against a Falcons side who were one of only two below them in the standings going into the game.

Saints, who had been 24-0 down by the break at Saracens six days earlier, certainly got the flying start they wanted as George Hendy found a way through the Falcons defence before offoading to the onrushing Alex Coles for a try inside five minutes.

Fin Smith easily added the extras from in front of the posts and he was soon doing so again after Trevor Davison dived over for a try against his former club following fine work from Smith and Henry Pollock.

Davison was soon eyeing a hat-trick as he powered over for his second score of the game after Saints made use of a penalty close to the Falcons line.

Newcastle were struggling to provide any sort of resistance and they had shipped the bonus-point try inside 15 minutes when Alex Mitchell cruised over from a quick tap penalty.

Smith added the extras to make it 28-0 as all of Saints' Christmases came at once during the formative stages of the game.

The Falcons managed to calm the storm a little bit in the 15 minutes that followed Saints' fourth try, but the away side were hit again when Smith and Tommy Freeman combined with good effect to release Josh Kemeny for a score on his return from injury.

Smith converted but he was sin-binned soon after for playing the ball on the ground as the Falcons made their way inside the home 22.

It made little difference to the Saints flow though as they continued to push forward, scoring again when Freeman found the big finish following some patient play.

Mitchell took over kicking duties with Smith off the field, but the Saints scrum-half fired the conversion off the left post and then received some teasing from his team-mates on his return to his own half.

The Falcons frantically tried to find some points before the break, but Hendy made a superb try-saving tackle out wide to ensure the away side were held scoreless.

It was a fairly sedate start to the second half with the result not in any doubt, but one of Saints' half-time replacements, Iakopo Mapu, made an impact on 53 minutes, gathering from a scrum and powering forward before Tom Pearson picked up to score.

Smith converted with his final kick before he was sensibly replaced by Saints, who sent on Rory Hutchinson to play at fly-half.

Pearson was soon diving over again as Saints scored their eighth try, allowing Hutchinson to tidily slot a conversion, making it 54-0.

Newcastle pushed forward in pursuit of some points but Saints defended superbly.

And when the ball came loose close to halfway, Hutchinson picked up and sprinted home to bring the Gardens to its feet.

Hutchinson added the conversion to put the seal on a fine win and year for Saints.

Saints: 15. George Hendy; 14. Tommy Freeman, 13. Tom Litchfield, 12. Fraser Dingwall (c), 11. Ollie Sleightholme; 10. Fin Smith (Rory Hutchinson 54), 9. Alex Mitchell (Archie McParland 40); 1. Tom West (Tarek Haffar 63), 2. Henry Walker (Curtis Langdon 63), 3. Trevor Davison (Luke Green 40); 4. Chunya Munga, 5. Alex Coles; 6. Josh Kemeny (Angus Scott-Young 57), 7. Tom Pearson, 8. Henry Pollock (Iakopo Mapu 40).

Newcastle Falcons: 15. Louis Brown; 14. Adam Radwan (Jack Metcalf 67), 13. Alex Hearle (Oli Spencer 62), 12. Connor Doherty, 11. Ben Stevenson; 10 Brett Connon, 9. Sam Stuart (Hugh O'Sullivan 52); 1. Murray McCallum (Micky Rewcastle 59), 2. Ollie Fletcher (Bryan Byrne 62), 3. Richard Palframan (Callum Hancock 62); 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5. Kiran McDonald (John Hawkins 54); 6. Freddie Lockwood, 7. Tom Gordon, 8. Callum Chick (c) (Philip van der Walt 54).

Referee: Luke Pearce