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Va'aiga Tuigamala won the battle of the rugby league old-boys as Newcastle advanced to the Tetley's Bitter Cup final for the second time in four years at Kingston Park this afternoon.

Though he may not have inscribed his name on the scoresheet in front of a ground record 6,257, the mighty Samoan produced a series of huge tackles and worried the Sale backs to such an extent that they started to drop the ball when he was anywhere within striking distance.

Centre Tom May scored either side of the interval, after Ross Beattie had run in the first try and with 22 points from Jonny Wilkinson's boot, Newcastle had enough in reserve to withstand Sale's late revival.

Sale started brightly, with fly-half Charlie Hodgson, a surprise choice above the experience of Niki Little, putting the visitors in front with a 30 metre penalty.

Having already missed from slightly further out, Hodgson needed to atone for his error, knowing that wayward kicking was unlikely to afflict Wilkinson.

The England fly-half belted the home side level after 11 minutes and for the next quarter of an hour, the visitors visibly disintegrated.

Having lost three of their first four line-out throws, Sale also dropped passes, missed tackles and generally took all the wrong options.

Beattie crashed through some weak defence to put Newcastle in front before May grabbed his first try, which epitomised the desperate nature of Sale's afternoon.

Full-back Vaughan Going slipped as he attempted to take a regulation kick downfield.

Steve Hanley managed to collect the loose ball but with no cover was penalised for not releasing.

Sensing that Sale had let their guard down anticipating another Wilkinson kick at goal, Dave Walder took a quick tap and fed May, who sprinted home which Going again slipping to the floor as he tried to defend.

Wilkinson converted both, landing two penalties in between and Newcastle were 20 points clear and had one foot in the final.

Apollo Perelini, the other Samoan on the field, set up a Sale reply with a barnstorming run through the Newcastle defence which ended with Hodgson taking Mel Deane's pass and scuttling over.

With Richard Arnold sin-binned for what appeared to be a double stamp on Deane, Sale held a modicum of hope at the interval.

Unfortunately, they had been unable to release Jason Robinson for a decent run and though Tuigamala's former Wigan team-mate produced one electrifying burst after the interval which left three opponents stranded, it was not the type of open contest to which the expensive rugby league recruit was suited.

Wilkinson added to Newcastle's lead with his fourth penalty and Sale had not responded by the time Arnold returned.

Tuigamala's presence had already been felt more than once and when he dumped Going onto his backside on the halfway line just before the hour, May was ready as Bryan Redpath tried to clear.

The Newcastle centre caught the scrum-half's kick on the full barely two yards away and embarked on a touchline run which took him past three Sale tacklers and over the line.

Amazingly, Wilkinson missed the conversion but did slot home a penalty shortly afterwards to effectively seal victory.

To their credit, Sale did mount a spirited fightback.

Prop Duncan Bell sauntered home with a slow motion dance through the home defence and Hanley made it eight tries in five matches with another touchdown in the corner three minutes later.

Having arrived as Hodgson' replacement, Little's failure to land the second conversion gave Newcastle some valuable breathing space, which Wilkinson exploited by thumping home his sixth penalty to end Sale's challenge.