Jonny Wilkinson's failure to convert a late try by former All Black Va'aiga Tuigamala enabled Leinster to preserve their 100 per cent Heineken Cup record in a nailbiting tie at Headingley.

Newcastle dominated the final quarter and looked to have ended the Dubliners' 14-match winning run in all competitions when man of the match Tom May carved out an opening for Tuigamala after 79 minutes, but Wilkinson's normal accuracy deserved him at the crucial time.

The England fly-half had returned from a 22-minute spell in the blood bin to orchestrate Newcastle's final flourish but Leinster were forced to operate without their chief playmaker for more than an hour.

Australian fly-half Nathan Spooner suffered a rib injury in the early stages in a crushing two-man tackle and, despite undergoing running repairs, was forced off just 22 minutes into the twice-delayed tie.

Leinster were never the same team without him but did just enough to stave off a battling Newcastle to make it five Heineken Cup wins out of five, and they will secure a home quarter-final with victory in Toulouse on Sunday.

Newcastle, forced to switch their final pool six home game to Leeds because of a frost-bound Kingston Park, pushed the star-studded Irish side all the way in a match watched by just 1,146 spectators and, ironically, could have won the match on penalties had they decided to kick for goal.

Leinster, down to 14 men for the last 10 minutes following the sin-binning of flanker Trevor Brenan, were forced to defend desperately in a rousing finish as the Falcons, with little to play for but pride, piled on the pressure.

Earlier there had been little to choose between the sides in an error-strewn first half.

Apart from his accurate marksmanship, Leinster badly missed Spooner's creativity, with Brian O'Meara failing to spark his side's star-studded three-quarters following his switch from scrum-half.

Spooner had helped create Leinster's opening try after just six minutes, scooping up O'Meara's ankle-high pass following Victor Costello's break from the base of a scrum and providing the scope for Girvan Dempsey and Brian O'Driscoll to get Denis Hickie racing over at the corner.

Spooner also kicked the touchline conversion to put the visitors 7-0 ahead but Newcastle levelled matters thanks to a try from the impressive May, whose jinking run caught the Leinster defenders flat-footed.

Wilkinson added the conversion and also put over a penalty to cancel out a similar effort from O'Meara and tie the scores at 10-10 by half-time.

It took a lightning break by substitute scrum-half Ben Willis to break the deadlock five minutes into the second half and O'Meara's conversion made it 17-10.

That is the way it stayed until Tuigamala's late strike and, despite seven minutes of injury time, Newcastle were never able to press home their advantage.

The Falcons, out-played in the set pieces, struggled for clean possession, but there was nothing wrong with their defence and they rocked the Irishmen with their late show.