Challenge Cup: Falcons soar
The temperatures may have been 20 degrees warmer than in their debut against Connacht in Krasnayarsk, but the Russians weren't able to put a freeze on the Falcons' scoring as they ended the game with nine tries.
Watson, whose younger brother Anthony enjoyed a Champions Cup win with Bath the previous day, enjoyed himself from start to finish as he scored tries in the 17th, 46th, 74th and 78th minutes to equal the record set by former England Sevens star Ollie Phillips against Centransa El Salvador in the 2007/08 season at Kingston Park.
Watson wasn't the only player to pick up a hat-trick, and not even the first. He was beaten to that landmark in the game by No.8 Mark Wilson, who scored in the 15th, 25th and 30th minutes.
There were also two tries for Zach Kibirige as the Falcons hit back from their narrow defeat in Brive in Round One to keep themselves very much in the hunt in Pool One. They now have to take on Pool leaders Connacht in the back-to-back games next month.
As well as their nine tries, Tom Catterick also kicked five conversions for the home side. The try for Enisei-STM came from Denis Simplikevich.
The scorers:
For Newcastle:
Tries: Wilson 3, Watson 4, Kibirige 2
Cons: Catterick 5
For Enisei-STM:
Try: Simplikevich
Con: Kushnarev
Teams:
Newcastle: 15 Alex Tait, 14 Zach Kibirige, 13 Tom Penny, 12 Chris Harris, 11 Marcus Watson, 10 Tom Catterick, 9 Michael Young, 8 Mark Wilson, 7 Dan Temm, 6 Will Welch (captain), 5 Sean Robinson, 4 Calum Green, 3 Jon Welsh, 2 George McGuigan, 1 Rob Vickers.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alex Rogers, 18 Taione Vea, 19 Will Witty, 20 Richard Mayhew, 21 Ruki Tipuna, 22 Craig Willis, 23 Adam Powell.
Enisei-STM: 15 Iurii Kushnarev, 14 Robert Malneek, 13 David Kacharava, 12 Dmitrii Gerasimov, 11 Denis Simplikevich, 10 Ramil Gaisin, 9 Jurijs Baranovs (captain), 8 Anton Rudoi, 7 Andrey Temnov, 6 Vitalii Orlov, 5 Viacheslav Krasylnyk, 4 Uldis Saulite, 3 Innokentiy Zykov, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Aleksandr Bezverkhov.
Replacements: 16 Nazir Gasanov, 17 Lawrence Cleminson, 18 Evgenii Pronenko, 19 Plavel Butenko, 20 Mikhail Babaev, 21 Alexey Shcherban, 22 Igor Kurashov, 23 Dmitrii Krotov.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Mark Patton (Ireland), Paul Haycock (Ireland)
