Newcastle knock Exiles out of Cup

Newcastle Falcons 24 London Irish 12

Newcastle moved into the semi-finals of the Powergen Cup with a superb defensive display against London Irish at Kingston Park today.

The Exiles were due to fly in to Newcastle airport this morning but found their flight postponed when they arrived at the airport and had to fly to Edinburgh from where they drove down by coach arriving just half an hour before kick-off.

They asked for a delay in the kick off but were refused because of BBC television scheduling – the match was live – and it was not the best preparation for a cup-tie.

The Falcons made a huge effort to get the game on clearing several inches of snow off the covered pitch starting at 7am and they were rewarded with a perfectly-playable surface.

Two probing kicks from David Walder saw Newcastle make early inroads and they came close to driving over from a line-out but had to settle for the penalty from Walder after five minutes to make it 3-0.

Hugh Vyvyan was caught pushing at the tail of a line-out even though it looked very much a case of obstruction on the Newcastle No.8 and Mark Mapletoft levelled the scores with the 10th minute penalty.

Both sides were way offside at the rucks. Referee Tony Spreadbury seemed happy enough to allow it to become a messy scrap before deciding enough was enough and penalising London Irish just inside their own half for Walder to make it 6-3 in the 14th minute.

Mapletoft levelled the scores in the 21st minute with penalty and on the half hour, Newcastle cracked the Irish defence with a concerted attack down the left and Warren Britz came on to Hall Charlton’s pass at real pace and then found Stuart Grimes on his shoulder for a great try which Walder converted for 13-6.

There was a long stoppage afterwards with hooker Matt Thompson needing treatment for what looked like a shoulder injury and he was replaced by Nick Makin.

Once again, Spreadbury’s eccentric style of refereeing led to a mystifying penalty in the 39th minute which Mapletoft squeezed over for 13-9.

Then Taione charged through and Tom May was dragged down 15 metres out and Makin and Garath Archer made a determined charge which ended with Kieron Dawson sin-binned for preventing release and Walder kicked the penalty in the 42nd minute for a 16-9 half-time lead.

Newcastle got just the start they needed in the second half with the ball being shovelled out to Taione who shrugged off Ryan Strudwick and pushed Paul Sackey aside before giving the ball to Walder on the outside for a try in the 45th minute to extend the Falcons lead to 21-9.

But then Archer was sin-binned for the second successive week, this time for stamping in the 50th minute and Mapletoft kicked the penalty for 21-12 – it was not what Newcastle wanted as Irish were restored to 15 men with the return of Dawson.

However, Newcastle survived the 10 minutes down to 14 men and looked the better side as they mounted a big attack down the left with Charlton, Dowson and Makin driving right up the line. After two inconclusive scrums and a drive into midfield by Dowson set up the ruck Walder dropped a 66th minute drop goal to make it 24-12.