Falcons win basement battle
The win gave the Falcons a little buffer between themselves and Irish at the bottom of the table
Sale Sharks took a boosted their hopes of a top-six Premiership finish thanks to bonus point 29-17 victory over Bath.
Newcastle Falcons 13-6 London Irish
In total, 7 756 fans were at Kingston Park and they were not disappointed as Marcus Watson's try proved to be the difference between the two sides at the bottom of the table.
The result leaves Irish seven points adrift of the Falcons with two rounds of the Premiership season still to play.
For the Falcons, the win was their first in seven, having lost their previous six since beating Northampton Saints by a single point.
Newcastle's Mike Delany dragged his first shot at goal of the afternoon wide of the upright allowing London Irish's Greig Tonks put the visitors in the lead after eight minutes with a successful 40m penalty from the left side.
Newcastle were level just three minutes later though. A big run from prop Taione Vea led to the penalty which Delany slotted over to make the score 3-3 after the opening 11 minutes.
Tonks restored Irish's narrow lead with a second penalty but the Irish flyhalf was at fault for the first try of the game as his looping pass failed to find an Irish teammate and Marcus Watson collected to race away and score under the posts.
Delany added the extras as Newcastle took the lead for the first time in the game, 10-6.
The Falcons had an excellent opportunity to extend their lead when they had a five metre line-out but the throw from George McGuigan was not straight.
Newcastle continued to press with good territory and possession with McGuigan collecting an offload and storming into the 22 before being brought down.
The Irish defence was tested further all the way through to half time with Andrew Fenby producing an amazing try saving tackle when wing Alex Tait looked certain to score for Newcastle.
With the wing unable to get the ball down, Fenby was able to push Tait into touch and the visitors held on to get into half time at just 10-6 down.
Irish came out firing in the second half and could have taken the lead when Alex Lewington fended off a Newcastle challenge to set up wing Asaeli Tikoirotuma down the left.
But the substitute chose to try and optimistic pass back inside rather than racing for the corner and the Newcastle defence took their chance to snuff out the danger.
Newcastle stretched their lead with the first points of the second period when centre Juan Pablo Socino split the uprights to give the home side a seven point cushion at 13-6.
Irish thought they'd found a way back into the game just after the hour mark but the TMO decided against awarding the try following Geraghty's chip into the corner.
Further pressure, possession and territory from London Irish failed to materialise into crucial points as Newcastle's defence held firm to the final whistle.
The scorers:
For Newcastle Falcons:
Try: Watson
Con: Delaney
Pens: Delaney, Socino
For London Irish:
Pens: Tonks 2
Teams:
Newcastle: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Alex Tait, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Juan Pablo Socino, 11 Marcus Watson, 10 Mike Delany, 9 Michael Young, 8 Nili Latu, 7 Will Welch (captain), 6 Mark Wilson, 5 Sean Robinson, 4 Calum Green, 3 Taione Vea, 2 George McGuigan, 1 Rob Vickers.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alex Rogers, 18 Mike Cusack, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Ally Hogg, 21 Sonatane Takulua, 22 Craig Willis, 23 Chris Harris.
London Irish: 15 Sean Maitland, 14 Alex Lewington, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Andrew Fenby, 10 Greig Tonks, 9 Scott Steele, 8 Luke Narraway (captain), 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Jebb Sinclair, 5 Matt Symons, 4 Will Lloyd, 3 Halani Aulika, 2 David Paice, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Tom Smallbone, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Jerry Sexton, 20 Rob McCusker, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Aseli Tikoirotuma.
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Assistant Referees: Peter Allan, Paul Burton
TMO: Graham Hughes
Sale Sharks 29-17 Bath
The Sharks secured their third win on the bounce and denied Bath taking a losing bonus point away from the AJ Bell Stadium late on.
The home side raced into a 17-6 lead courtesy of tries from Vardim Cobilas and Will Addison in the opening 20 minutes.
But three penalties from George Ford and a second half Semesa Rokoduguni score brought Bath back to 17-17.
But with Dominic Day seeing yellow in the final ten minutes, a driving maul from the Sharks saw David Seymour cross before Mark Easter secured the bonus point.
Sale Sharks opened the scoring with their first visit to the Bath 22 as tighthead prop Cobilas found a gap and went over following an initial drive from Mike Haley.
Danny Cipriani successfully added the conversion to give Sale a 7-0 lead after the opening ten minutes. The visitors responded through a Ford penalty on 14 minutes but Sale had their second try just six minutes later.
Cipriani created the gap out wide for Sale's Addison to cross over on the right wing for his fourth Premiership try of the season before the flyhalf successfully added the extras again.
A strong tackle from Andrei Ostrikov forcing a knock-on from Matt Garvey to knock on but Sharks were penalised from their resulting scrum and Ford's kick reduced the deficit to 14-6.
Bath then thought they had their first try of the game when Rokoduguni intercepted and ran to score but play was brought back for a deliberate Bath knock-on in the build-up.
Cipriani once again stepped up and made it three successful kicks out of three to extend the Sharks lead to 17-6.
Bath again responded through the boot of Ford after the Sharks were caught offside to make the score at half-time 17-9.
After multiple reset scrums, Rokoduguni crossed the tryline for the second time in the afternoon ten minutes into a scrappy second half and this time the five points were awarded to the visitors.
Superb hands from the Bath backs, including Ollie Devoto and Ford, created the space on the right wing for Rokoduguni and the deficit was reduced to 17-14.
Ford failed with the conversion for the visitors but took the opportunity to make up for the miss minutes later with both hands when his successful penalty brought the scores level.
Cipriani missed two penalties and Ford was unsuccessful once before Sale decided to kick a penalty towards the corner to set up an attacking line-out.
From the resulting driving maul, Bath lock Dominic Day saw yellow from referee Luke Pearce, in his 50th Premiership game, as the visitors were forced to finish the game with 14 men.
Sale weren't to be stopped as a second driving maul was successful and they regained the lead through Seymour.
The television match official was required to check whether Cipriani's conversion had dipped inside the posts but it was ruled that it didn't and the score remained 22-17.
There was concern for Bath fans as Kyle Eastmond left the pitch on a stretcher with just minutes left on the clock and their misery was compounded as Easter scored the Sharks' bonus-point try.
Cipriani added the extras and some gloss to the scoreline with the successful conversion.
The scorers:
For Sale Sharks:
Tries: Cobilas, Addison, Seymour, Easter
Cons: Cipriani 3
Pens: Cipriani
For Bath:
Try: Rokoduguni
Pens: Ford 4
Teams:
Sale: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Will Addison, 13 Sam James, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Nev Edwards, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Mark Easter, 7 TJ Ioane, 6 Cameron Neild, 5 Andrei Ostrikov, 4 Bryn Evans, 3 Vadim Cobilas, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Eifion Lewis-Roberts.
Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 Brian Mujati, 19 Jonathan Mills, 20 David Seymour, 21 James Mitchell, 22 Joe Ford, 23 Tom Brady.
Bath: 15 Rhys Priestland, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Ollie Devoto, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 George Ford (captain), 9 Chris Cook, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Guy Mercer, 6 Matt Garvey, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Dominic Day, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Nathan Catt.
Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 David Wilson, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 David Denton, 21 Amanaki Mafi, 22 Will Homer, 23 Kyle Eastmond.
Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant Referees: Gareth Copsey, Ross Campbell
TMO: David Sainsbury
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