Newcastle cruised to a comfortable win over The Borders in a friendly at Kingston Park on Saturday.

The Falcons were never in any trouble after rattling up 19 points in the first 20 minutes.

Newcastle grabbed an early try when Ian Peel and Jon Dunbar blasted a big hole in the Borders defence and Jamie Noon showed great hands to send in Joe Shaw in the sixth minute.

The Falcons were then forced to handle some pressure from the Borders before a terrific run from Michael Stephenson backed up by James Grindal led to a try for Stuart Grimes, with Phil Dowson delivering the final pass.

Dowson did the same again four minutes later for Grimes' second try - both were converted by Phil Godman.

Newcastle were looking very sharp, none more so than Stephenson, who snapped up a Borders dropped ball on halfway and raced in for the try.

Both side made wholesale changes at half-time with Newcastle bringing on 10 new players and while there was some initial settling in during which Kevin Utterson cut through for a try for the Borders, normal service was resumed with Dunbar belting over in the left corner and Stephenson doing the same on the right with a delightful chip and chase.

After another bout of substitutions, this time by the Borders, the game lost its shape and Scott Paterson shot over in the corner with 10 minutes left - before Jimmy Isaacson rumbled over in injury time to complete the scoring.