London Irish edge incident-packed clash with Newcastle Falcons
Last Updated: 28/03/15 5:51pm
London Irish held on to record a narrow 22-21 Aviva Premiership victory over Newcastle Falcons before a crowd of over 15,000 at the Madejski Stadium.
The Exiles raced into an early 14-0 lead which the Falcons could not peg back, despite the visitors controlling the second half and Irish losing three players to the sin-bin.
Halani Aulika, Scott Steele and Andrew Fenby scored the tries for the hosts, with Shane Geraghty converting two, while Chris Noakes kicked a late penalty to seal victory.
Chris Harris and Adam Powell scored Newcastle's tries with Tom Catterick adding three penalties and a conversion.
The first try of an incident-packed afternoon arrived after just 90 seconds, Aulika spotting a huge gap in the opposition defence and racing over for a try.
The hosts dominated the opening period and after declining to take two kickable penalties, they got their reward when Steele skipped away from a driving line-out for his side's second try, which Geraghty converted for a 14-0 lead after 14 minutes.
Catterick put Newcastle on the scoreboard with a simple penalty before Geraghty was sin-binned for a deliberate offside as he denied the Falcons a clear scoring opportunity.
The visitors camped in the Irish 22 but the home defence held firm. However, within one minute of Geraghty's re-entry, Irish were back down to 14 men when hooker David Paice was yellow carded for another offside offence.
Catterick kicked the resulting penalty but despite their numerical advantage, the Falcons conceded a third try before the interval when Fenby crossed to give Irish a 19-6 lead.
Newcastle began strongly after the restart, with the TMO ruling out an effort from Sinoti Sinoti, but Paice returned with the visitors having failed to take any advantage from his absence.
The visitors’ dominance was finally rewarded on 53 minutes when Catterick kicked his third penalty, while Geraghty was off target with an attempt of his own as Irish led by 10 at the end of the third quarter.
Newcastle’s pressure eventually paid off when Harris forced his way over for a try with 12 minutes to go, before Falcons replacement Josh Furno was then sin-binned for a tip tackle, and Irish’s Jebb Sinclair for retaliation.
Noakes kicked a penalty to give Irish some breathing space and it proved just enough as Powell’s late try secured a deserved bonus point for Newcastle.
