By Leipziger
October 28 2013

 What had for the most part been a dour game between the Falcons and London Irish was enlivened by Adam Powell’s winning try and Shane Geraghty’s slow last-gasp penalty that gave Newcastle their first home win of the season.

The four points give the Falcons an eleven-point advantage over Worcester and are, if not halfway to staying up, at least a decent part of the way there after three wins. That is half as many as in the whole of 2011/12.

After two weeks on the road in Europe, Dean Richards’ team had the chance for a second successive league win to build on a reasonable start to the Premiership season. Alex Tait, Tom Catterick, Danny Barnes, Rory Clegg, Mike Blair, Carlo del Fava and Ally Hogg returned to the starting lineup along with the redemption-seeking Oliver Tomaszczyk, while Danny Barnes played for the first time since 13 September.

With the rain easing before kick-off and the sun coming out, there were hopes of a decent game but the wind had a big impact. The tone was set by Clegg hitting his kick-off straight into touch. The fly-half then missed his first attempt at goal with a penalty.

The first try went to London Irish however with Ofisa Treviranus the scorer. Sailosi Tagicakibau broke through two tackles to set up the score, assisted by weak Falcons defending. Ian Humphreys missed the conversion and Clegg cut the deficit with a penalty following a big break from Adam Powell through the middle that was brought to the left.

A second penalty on the half hour gave the Falcons the lead for the first time, but neither team looked likely to cross the tryline until Chris Hala’ufia was held up just before the break. Irish soon won a penalty and Humphreys easily knocked the ball over to put the visitors ahead at half-time.

In the second half, the Falcons’ direction seemed to completely lose their way with some completely aimless kicks upfield to waiting Irish defenders, for seemingly no other reason than ball-fright. The home fans, who had been subdued throughout the game, now piped up with annoyance, while the few travelling Irish fans continued to cheer on their leading team.

Irish were next on the scoresheet with a further penalty from Humphreys, and Dean Richards decided enough was enough, bringing on Grant Shiells, Kieran Brookes, Phil Godman and George McGuigan. Captain Will Welch soon followed, coming on for the dazed Fraser McKenzie to make his 100^th Falcons appearance.

The home side began to play more with the ball in hand and unsurprisingly began to put some more positive play together. An overlap for Tom Catterick on the right was missed, but with the crowd now roaring, the forwards piled towards the Irish line in search for a try. Finally, it was Powell who found a gap just to the right of the posts and raced in to score a try that left the centre looking up jubilantly at an ecstatic South Stand.

Godman added the conversion to give the Falcons the lead again, and ensure an even more tense finale for most of the 4,766 in Kingston Park. Irish plugged away but never really threatened to get into the 22.

Their last throw of the dice came in a scrum just a few metres inside the Falcons half, in the middle of the field. The referee’s arm went up for an Irish penalty. With just over a minute on the clock, hearts were in mouths and replacement fly-half Shane Geraghty took every second he could. Too many in fact. After the ball had blown off the tea for a second time, the Falcons players and fans became frustrated and referee Greg Garner, probably the calmest man in the ground, told Geraghty to get a move on.

Darren Allinson put his hand on the ball but Geraghty was forced to rush his run-up and the ball dropped short. The Falcons put the ball into touch to celebrations around Kingston Park, lifting themselves up to a lofty eighth in the Premiership table.