Falcons fall victim to Leeds
Bottom-placed Leeds scraped a vital 16-15 victory at Newcastle in the Guinness Premiership on Sunday.
By Elliot Ball
Last Updated: 27/12/09 7:08pm
Bottom-placed Leeds scraped a vital 16-15 victory at Newcastle in the Guinness Premiership on Sunday.
Freezing weather meant the Kingston Park fixture was in serious doubt of being called off, but the hosts defied the odds, with squads of volunteers and club officials clearing snow off the pitch from 7.30am for the third day running.
The Falcons biggest crowd of the season was the club's reward for their efforts, but there was no victory to savour as Leeds grabbed a relegation lifeline after leading 16-9 at half-time.
Newcastle made an explosive start to the match as former Leeds player Rob Vickerman made an early break backed up by Charlie Amesbury.
Jimmy Gopperth opened the scoring in the seventh minute via a penalty kick after missing the target three minutes earlier as the Falcons grabbed a deserved lead.
Leeds responded and Ceiron Thomas levelled the scores after Seru Rabeni got away with crossing to cut through, after which Newcastle eventually conceded a 12th-minute penalty right in front of their posts.
Under the cosh
The hosts found themselves under the cosh as Thomas probed with some clever kicking and players found it hard to keep their footing on a greasy pitch.
However, Micky Young's breakaway almost led to a try with Tane Tu'ipulotu's crossfield kick just eluding Alex Tait - then Josh Afu lost the ball on the Leeds line after a powerful run by Filipo Levi.
Newcastle continued to turn the screw and Leeds yielded to the pressure as they conceded a penalty at the scrum and Gopperth kicked his second penalty in the 24th minute.
The Falcons sloppily conceded a penalty from the restart by coming in from the side and Thomas levelled the scores again - but another surging run from Amesbury led to Gopperth's third successful penalty in the 32nd minute.
Déjà vu
Again Newcastle shot themselves in the foot from the restart and they were made to pay dearly as Thomas made it 9-9 before a terrific series of drives from Leeds ended with Alfie To'oala forcing his way over for a try which Joe Ford converted to give the visitors a 16-9 interval lead.
Gcobani Bobo's weaving run led to an early second half penalty which Gopperth kicked for 16-12 but Leeds looked mightily impressive on the forward drive and Newcastle's tackling was shaky as they were penned in their own 22.
It took a big call from referee David Rose to relieve the pressure when he penalised Leeds for dropping the scrum right on the Falcons line.
Gopperth's chip through led to a 71st minute sin-binning of Henry Paul for obstruction and Gopperth's fifth penalty cut Leeds' lead to just one point with just under 10 minutes left.
Newcastle conceded a penalty at the restart for the third time but Ford missed the kick at goal to set Leeds nerves jangling.
And in a frantic closing few minutes Gopperth spurned a drop-goal chance to run the ball - but the move broke down and when Tait knocked on the defeat was confirmed.
