Jonny Wilkinson's rehabilitation continued on Monday in Newcastle's pre-season match with Munster in Ireland.

The England fly-half played an hour and kicked a penalty and a conversion against Munster in Limerick and showed no reaction on the second stage of his comeback following a shoulder-neck operation in February.

There were no scares and no alarms as Wilkinson showed his class by setting up the Falcons' fourth-minute try.

But while the Falcons lost the game in injury-time against a Munster side missing 11 internationals, they will be pleased their prize asset came through unscathed again.

Epi Taione and Jim Williams exchanged pleasantries in front of the stand and then the Falcons screwed the Munster pack into the deck three times in quick succession and scored a quickfire try in the fourth minute, Wilkinson cleverly flicking the ball to Mark Mayerhofler for the easiest of scores under the posts.

Wilkinson converted before Paul Burke chipped over two penalties to the delight of the partisan crowd in the space of seven minutes.

Taione and Christian Cullen were involved in another bout of pushing and shoving and pushing and Taione was lucky not to be in trouble again when he clattered into Shaun Payne with a high tackle - he was booed every time he touched the ball after that.

Newcastle were still 7-6 up at the break and finished the half stronger.

The Falcons made a host of changes at the break and Munster went up a a gear in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

The hosts should have led but Burke missed a relatively simple penalty and Newcastle were under the cosh a bit but then started to find a bit of room in midfield.

Had Phil Dowson used Taione on halfway, the winger might well have been away but the flanker took the ball back inside and the chance was gone.

Nevertheless, it seemed to lift Newcastle and Craig Hamilton's drive and a Wilkinson dart led to a penalty in the 17th minute, which the England fly-half knocked over for a 10-6 lead before he went off in another clutch of changes on the hour.

Munster had their chances to win the game in the last 10 minutes and they finally took one in the fourth minute of injury-time.

They should have scored when Mike Mullins cut through and all Brian Tuohy had to do was take the pass and score - but he could not.

And then Denis Leamy lost the ball as he drove over the line with five minutes left and did the same again in the second minute of injury-time as Mullins made another cutting run.

Then, right at the death, Munster turned over the Falcons ball at a scrum and then made it count with their own put-in - and Mossy Lawler broke through in the 84th minute to score the winning try and convert it himself.