Despite losing 32-49 to Newcastle Falcons, Tyler Hotson's last minute dive in the corner ensured a try bonus point for London Scottish.
A warm day at The Athletic Ground produced a fantastic game of rugby as Dean Richard's Falcons came up against a determined London Scottish side.
Seven tries for the Falcons, including an Ally Hogg hattrick, secured a second consecutive Championship win for Newcastle. Mark Bright, Scottish captain for the day, was involved in much of the good work done by the home side, including setting up one try and scoring one himself.
Newcastle's Sean Tomes opened the scoring, bundling over in the corner in the opening five minutes. Scottish instantly responded however, a James Love penalty awarded at the restart, taking the score to 3-7.
Ally Hogg scored the first two tries of his hattrick in quick succession, the first in an identical position to the first, the second a classy finish from a left wing break. Two more Jimmy Gopperth conversion stretched the lead to 3-21.
Scottish held firm though, and a wonderful lineout move saw Bright deliver an inside ball to Richard Bolt who showed the speed of Usain to score Scottish's first try of the day. Love narrowly missed the conversion, but slotted away a penalty soon after; 11-21.
The Falcons finished the half strongly, firstly Luke Fielden going over and then Alex Crockett benefiting from an interception to have the whole Scottish half clear to run in the Falcon's fifth try of the day under the posts. Gopperth converted both to end the first half 11-35.
Newcastle opened the scoring to the second half too, prop James Hall forcing his way over. Fellow front rower Rob Vickers was later sin-binned, and Scottish's efforts to try and capitalise resulted in a penalty try awarded soon after. Love converted; 18-42.
Hogg completed his hattrick and Gopperth converted, to take the Falcons one point away from fifty. Despite this, Scottish heads never went down and the inspired Mark Bright showed a turn of pace that stunned the Newcastle back line as James Love's reverse pass set the No. 8 free to score under the posts. Love's conversion closed the gap to 25-49.
The second half finished in a real flourish for Scottish. Jim Thompson and the returning David Howells combined well and threatened down the left wing. And it was in the left corner that Tyler Hotson dived and stretched to secure a try bonus point for Scottish, sending The Athletic Ground crowd home happy.
Final Score: 32-49.
