Exiles secure deserved win at Newcastle

Newcastle Falcons 20 London Irish 23

A try either side of half-time for London Irish condemned Newcastle Falcons to yet another Guinness Premiership defeat in front of a packed house at Kingston Park.

In a scrappy but compelling game, the Exiles just about deserved their narrow three-point win, as their pack got the better of a misfiring Falcons eight.

Riki Flutey and Phil Murphy scored a try apiece, and fly-half Barry Everitt kicked 13 points as Rob Andrew’s men slumped to their fifth Premiership defeat of the season.

A 15-point haul for Jonny Wilkinson and a bonus point will provide Andrew with cold comfort, as only the inadequacies of Leeds keep his men from propping up the table.

Wilkinson had opened the scoring with a simple penaly in the 14th minute after Irish were pulled up for offside, and Everitt responded with a penalty, before Newcastle struck with a well-worked try from a scrum inside the Irish 22.

After a couple of thrusts from the Falcons forwards, 19-year-old centre Mathew Tait took the ball down the left and stood up the Irish defence, allowing the supporting Matthew Burke to slide outside the despairing Mike Catt and power over in the corner. Wilkinson could not convert.

The Falcons pack was unable to take a grip on the game, and the visitors edged themselves in front thanks to two well-struck Everitt penalties.

The crowd were silenced further just before the break when Everitt carved a hole in the Falcons defence and fed a lovely inside pass to Catt who in turn set up full-back Flutey to go in unopposed under the posts.

Everitt’s conversion made it 16-8 at half-time, and even more worrying for the crowd, was the sight of Wilkinson receiving attention after being on the end of a heavy blow to the head after mistiming a tackle.

The visitors struck again soon after the break when a magnificent eight man shove saw number eight Murphy lunge over after Catt had forced a five-metre scrum. Everitt’s fourth successful kick of the evening made it 23-8.

Wilkinson recovered his composure to narrow the gap to nine points with two crisp penalties as the pendulum began to swing again.

With Colin Charvis – back from international duty with Wales – snapping at the heels of the Irish backs, the Falcons once again began to look dangerous.

It was Charvis who forced Irish to infringe again when Murphy was penalised for holding on and Wilkinson’s fourth kick of the evening narrowed the gap to six points.

Fully recovered from his earlier grogginess, the World Cup winning fly-half produced another splendid strike on 63 minutes to set up a nerve-jangling finish.

But his efforts were in vain, as the visitors’ defence held firm in the closing stages to secure a deserved win.