A try either side of half-time for London Irish condemned Newcastle Falcons to
yet another Guinness Premiership defeat in front of a packed house at Kingston
Park.
In a scrappy but compelling game, the Exiles just about deserved their narrow
three-point win, as their pack got the better of a misfiring Falcons eight.
Riki Flutey and Phil Murphy scored a try apiece, and fly-half Barry Everitt
kicked 13 points as Rob Andrew's men slumped to their fifth Premiership defeat
of the season.
A 15-point haul for Jonny Wilkinson and a bonus point will provide Andrew with
cold comfort, as only the inadequacies of Leeds keep his men from propping up
the table.
Wilkinson had opened the scoring with a simple penalty in the 14th minute
after Irish were pulled up for offside, and Everitt responded with a penalty,
before Newcastle struck with a well-worked try from a scrum inside the Irish
22.
After a couple of thrusts from the Falcons forwards, 19-year-old centre Mathew
Tait took the ball down the left and stood up the Irish defence, allowing the
supporting Matthew Burke to slide outside the despairing Mike Catt and power
over in the corner. Wilkinson could not convert.
The Falcons pack was unable to take a grip on the game, and the visitors edged
themselves in front thanks to two well-struck Everitt penalties.
The crowd were silenced further just before the break when Everitt carved a
hole in the Falcons defence and fed a lovely inside pass to Catt who in turn set
up full-back Flutey to go in unopposed under the posts.
Everitt's conversion made it 16-8 at half-time, and even more worrying for the
crowd, was the sight of Wilkinson receiving attention after being on the end of
a heavy blow to the head after mistiming a tackle.
The visitors struck again soon after the break when a magnificent eight-man
shove saw number eight Murphy lunge over after Catt had forced a five-metre
scrum. Everitt's fourth successful kick of the evening made it 23-8.
Wilkinson recovered his composure to narrow the gap to nine points with two
crisp penalties as the pendulum began to swing again.
With Colin Charvis - back from international duty with Wales - snapping at the
heels of the Irish backs, the Falcons once again began to look dangerous.
It was Charvis who forced Irish to infringe again when Murphy was penalised
for holding on and Wilkinson's fourth kick of the evening narrowed the gap to
six points.
Fully recovered from his earlier grogginess, the World Cup winning fly-half
produced another splendid strike on 63 minutes to set up a nerve-jangling
finish.
But his efforts were in vain, as the visitors' defence held firm in the
closing stages to secure a deserved win.
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