Rugby story by Gareth Bowman, Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:16:01 GMT


Johnny Wilkinson's heroics were in vain as the Newcastle Falcons crashed to a 20-23 defeat to the Irish Londoners in the Guinness Premiership in front of a massive home crowd at Kingston Park. This is the Falcons' fifth defeat in the Premiership this season and came on a rare Friday night game that was played to suit television requirements.

For the visitors, fly-half Barry Everitt kicked 13 points and matched Wilkinson stride for stride making it very difficult for the Falcons to recover from the blows dealt by his points. In the end his points accounted for the narrow defeat and the Falcons are in for a tough time this season. Rob Andrew's men need to dig deep if they are to salvage something from this season.

Johnny Wilkinson logged in 15 points on a day when the game was a bit scrappy, but thrilling nevertheless. The game ebbed and flowed until the Londoners finally settled it to grab a vital victory.

For the visitors, Everitt was at his best and besides the penalties was instrumental in tipping the balance towards his team's way. The score read 16-8 at half time and Everitt's brilliance ensured that the Londoners quickly went up 23-8. But Johnny Wilkinson hit two monstrous kicks to give the Falcons some hope before they eventually lost to what was definitely a better team on the day.

How the match shaped up:
Referee: S Davey.
Newcastle Falcons: M Burke; T May, M Tait, T Flood, J Hoyle; J Wilkinson, J Grindal (L Dickson, 40); G Anderson (M Ward, 40), A Long (M Thompson, 60), R Morris (T Paoletti, 60), G Parling, A Buist, O Finegan, B Woods, C Charvis (captain).
Scorers: T: Burke P: Wilkinson 5.
London Irish: R Flutey; D Armitage, R Penney, M Catt (captain), J Bishop; B Everitt, B Willis; N Hatley, D Coetzee (R Russell, 72), F Rautenbach (M Collins, 50), B Casey (R Strudwick, 72), N Kennedy, K Roche, D Danaher, P Murphy.
Scorers: T: Flutey, Murphy. C: Everitt 2. P: Everitt 3.

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