Injury time penalty gives Exiles win

Newcastle Falcons 15 London Irish 16

Not for the first time this season, Newcastle contrived to lose a match they should have won comfortably.

The Falcons led right up until the fourth minute of stoppage time when they went behind to a Mark Mapletoft penalty.

Newcastle almost scored from the kick-off but lost the ball in the Irish 22 and nearly conceded a try at the other end. They were probably glad to give away just a penalty to Barry Everitt in a frantic opening.

Some great handling down the right by Jamie Noon and Michael Stephenson opened up the visitors and Ian Peel and Hugh Vyvyan clattered through in midfield to force a penalty but Dave Walder sliced it wide.

Then in a fairytale start for debutant Matthew Tate, he scored with his first touch of the ball.

Newcastle ran it out of defence with Tom May finding Stephenson, and the full-back surged into the Irish half.

He delivered the perfect pass for Tate to skin Michael Horak and race behind the posts – he even had time to kiss the ball before scoring his first Premiership try for the Falcons.

Newcastle were on fire and Hall Charlton soon found May on the wing. His pass to Stuart Grimes saw the big lock charge through and then deliver a stunning reverse pass for Warren Britz to score.

Then the Falcons were rather lucky to survive a breakaway by Nick Kennedy and it needed a big tackle from May to drive him into touch five metres out.

The line-out was overthrown and it seemed Irish must score but somehow the Falcons turned it over and Tate, under pressure, cleared to touch.

But from the line-out, Britz was pulled up for what looked like a good tackle and Everitt made it 12-6.

Walder kicked a second-half penalty to make it 15-6 but when the Falcons had Britz sin-binned for going over the ball, they were under immediate pressure and it seemed Paul Sackey had scored from a quickly-taken penalty.

However referee Wayne Barnes decided Sackey had made a double movement when he was tackled on the line and the penalty to Newcastle relieved the pressure.

But then the Falcons did concede a try with just four minutes of normal time left when Neal Hatley scrambled over and Mark Mapletoft converted to make it 15-13.

With a minute to go, Grimes thundered down the right and May just could not hold his pass with the line beckoning.

It proved a costly miss with Mapletoft kicking an 84th-minute penalty to give Irish the lead for the first time in the match and they hung on for an unlikely win.