Fly-half Mark Van Gisbergen landed six kicks from six attempts to steer Zurich
Premiership champions Wasps to their fourth successive win.
But Newcastle kicker Dave Walder missed three kicks - two conversion attempts
and a penalty - which would have given his side their first away victory of the
season.
John Rudd, Craig Dowd and Shane Roiser scored the Wasps tries with Hugh
Vyvyan, Warren Britz and Michael Stephenson replying for Newcastle.
The champions looked to be on their way to a comfortable victory when they led
after only 14 minutes but Newcastle rallied well and were in contention right up
to the last minute when they squandered a good attacking position by conceding a
penalty.
Wasps opened the scoring in the third minute when hooker Phil Greening
sidestepped Walder to send left-wing Rudd in between the posts to leave Van
Gisbergen an easy conversion.
Walder replied with a 13 minute penalty but Stephenson dropped the restart
kick and was punished when man-of-the-match scrum-half Peter Richards passed out
of a tackle to create Dowd's try.
A quick piece of thinking by Newcastle scrum-half Hall Charlton, who took a
quick tap penalty opened up the Wasps defence and Vyvyan went over in the
left-hand corner, with Walder adding the difficult conversion.
But the Newcastle full-back missed the penalty which would have cut the
first-half deficit, but Van Gisbergen's penalty, two minutes into the second
half, put Wasps 17-10 ahead.
Newcastle battled back again when a rolling maul took them over the Wasps line
for flanker Britz to touch down.
Walker was off-target again, with a conversion which would have drawn
Newcastle level.
Wasps moved clear again when a careless pass by Newcastle fly-half Phil Godman
was intercepted by Roiser who ran half the length of the pitch to touch down,
leaving Van Gisbergen another easy penalty.
But Newcastle rallied once more to get within a point of the champions as
Jamie Noon sent Stephenson over by the left corner flag after the north-east
side counter-attacked following a clearance kick by Van Gisbergen.
Two more penalties by the Wasps fly-half made the game safe for his side and
even though Walder struck back with a 72nd-minute penalty he was left to rue his
missed opportunity.
Teams:
Wasps: Voyce, Roiser, Waters, Denney, Rudd, van Gisbergen,
Richards, Payne, Greening, Dowd, Purdy, Birkett, Volley,
O'Connor, Clarke.
Replacements: Erinle for Denney (61), Leota for Greening (53).
Not Used: Howley, Haskell, Skivington, Lock, Mackenzie.
Tries: Rudd, Dowd, Roiser.
Cons: van Gisbergen 3.
Pens: van Gisbergen 3.
Newcastle: Walder, May, Noon, Mayerhofler, Stephenson, Godman,
Charlton, Peel, Makin, Ward, Archer, Hamilton, Dunbar, Britz,
Vyvyan.
Replacements: Gollings for Godman (54), Wilson for Peel (40),
Dowson for Hamilton (73).
Not Used: Thompson, Grindal, Williams., Parling.
Tries: Vyvyan, Britz, Stephenson.
Cons: Walder.
Pens: Walder 3.
Att: 5,151
Ref: Steve Leyshon (RFU).
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