Man of the match Flood was involved in everything, laying on two of his side's four tries, and successful with two penalties, two conversions and a drop goal.

Falcons director of rugby John Fletcher was in no doubt, saying: "On that performance, Toby played better than Charlie," but then added: "In the windy conditions, anyone could have struggled."

The wind was undoubtedly the deciding factor in the game and as Fletcher put it: "We decided not to move it around because of the weather and we managed the wind a lot better than them."