While today’s game won’t go down as a classic for any neutrals, two excellent tries and some hard graft ensured our boys extended their unbeaten run to six matches with a third straight Premiership win.

Rob Andrew made three changes to the team that beat Leeds with David Walder, Geoff Parling and Ben Woods coming in for Toby Flood, Stuart Grimes and Cory Harris.  Flood was on the bench as the only roaming back with Jonny Wilkinson still unfit.

We took the lead after six minutes when Matt Burke, bubbling with confidence after some top kicking at Leeds, scored a 55m penalty after James Brown missed for Worcester.  The first try didn’t arrive until the half hour, and was also scored by Burke, the full back kicking a loose ball upfield and outpacing the visitors to score intelligently on the right.  The conversion made the score 10-0.

Worcester hit back quickly though, breaking through the Falcon defence and Aisea Havili scored (or didn’t as some North Standers suggested) his side’s first try, which Brown converted.  Another Burke penalty just before half time gave us a 13-7 lead from a scrappy first half in which we shaded the game.

Brown cut the deficit with a penalty but seconds later Walder intercepted a Worcester ball on the right and legged it all the way to line from his own half to down our second score.  Although Burke didn’t convert, he knocked over another penalty and with an 11-point lead we looked good for a win.

Worcester captain Tony Windo fought over with his forwards for what turned out to be just an unconverted consolation try, and the end-to-end action later in the game couldn’t produce any more points.  Newcastle finished 21-15 winners.

As I didn’t take anything to write with, I can’t report much more than the bare bones, though I have to say referee Ashley Rowden had a shocker of a game, not helping the game flow and missing a horrific ‘tackle’ on Ben Woods around the neck in the first half.

On our team however, Mathew Tait deserves a mention for his maturity in having a good game despite a terrible first 10 minutes of dropped and missed balls.  The forwards too did well in battling and, over the 80, getting the beating of one of the Premiership’s strongest packs.

Although we remain ninth in the league, our four points mean we are now eleven ahead of bottom-placed Leeds and can maybe relax on that front and play with a bit more freedom.  Also, we are only six points behind London Irish in fourth, and while a playoff place may be too much to hope for, the tightness of the table means anything is possible.

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