Jonny Wilkinson was the centre of another injury scare as he limped off in the
68th minute of Newcastle's 33-12 Heineken Cup mauling at Perpignan.
Wilkinson was left prone on the ground and in obvious pain after ending up at
the bottom of a ruck.
He received extensive treatment and tried to continue before signalling to the
bench he had to come off with an injury to his left leg, to be replaced by his
brother Mark.
With Jamie Noon already off the field with suspected concussion and Matt Burke
and Dave Walder injured, Newcastle could be stretched next week against Newport
- a match they must win to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Newcastle went behind to an early penalty from Manny Edmonds but Wilkinson
levelled two minutes later.
Edmonds then made it 6-3 after Colin Charvis was harshly penalised for not
rolling away in the tackle, a pretty difficult task with most of the Perpignan
pack on top of him.
Some of the French side's tackling was awesome but the Falcons were very much
in the game with Joe Shaw almost cutting through and Wilkinson landing his
second penalty after 15 minutes to make it 6-6.
On the half hour Newcastle lost Noon after a nasty bang on the head, referee
Nigel Williams immediately blowing up and urgently signalling the medical staff
to come on with Noon seemingly unconscious.
However, he was able to walk off after treatment and was replaced by Mark
Mayerhofler.
Tom May split the Perpignan defence with a searing run and when Gregory le
Corvec climbed all over the ruck after Mayerhofler was tackled, Wilkinson put
Newcastle in front with a 34th minute penalty.
Edmond levelled before half time with his third penalty and Perpignan scored a
vital try at the start of the second half, Jean-Phillipe Grandeclaude breaking
down the right and passing inside for Rimas Alvarez-Kairelis to score.
It was quickly 19-9 with Nicolas Mas being driven over from a line-out but
another Wilkinson penalty kept Newcastle in touch at 19-12.
But the visitors' frailty up front was exposed with another huge rolling maul
and three successive scrums before Alvarez-Kairelis went over for his second
try.
Worse was to follow with Wilkinson's injury and Newcastle were unable to halt
the driving maul which saw Jan-Gideon Van Den Heever score the fourth try in
injury time to give Perpignan the bonus point.
Teams
Perpignan: Cermeno, Bomati, Marty, Grandclaude, Luger, Edmonds,
Durand, Freshwater, Grelon, Mas, Gaston, Alvarez Kairelis,
Le Corvec, Goutta, Robertson.
Tries: Alvarez Kairelis 2, Mas, Van Der Heever.
Cons: Edmonds, Giannantonio.
Pens: Edmonds 3.
Replacements: Giannantonio for Cermeno (68),
Manas for Edmonds (73), Loustau for Durand (76),
Van Der Heever for Freshwater (60), Porcu for Gaston (44),
Labat for Le Corvec (76).
Not Used: Debaty.
Newcastle: Shaw, May, Tait, Noon, Stephenson, J. Wilkinson,
Grindal, Peel, Long, Ward, Gross, Grimes, McCarthy, Charvis,
Dowson.
Pens: J. Wilkinson 4.
Replacements: Mayerhofler for Noon (33),
Walder for J. Wilkinson (74), Charlton for Grindal (60),
Isaacson for Peel (51), Buist for Grimes (52).
Not Used: Thompson, Sititi.
Att: 11,000
Ref: Nigel Williams (Wales).
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