Newcastle Falcons avoid drop despite another loss

May 8 2011 by Mark Smith, Sunday Sun

NEWCASTLE Falcons completed their great escape yesterday in Bath, with Aviva Premiership rugby secured for a 15th successive season.

But it was events elsewhere which saw them cling on to their top-flight status by the most slender of margins, with Northampton’s 31-24 comeback win against Leeds seeing the Falcons stay up on points difference.

It is better to be lucky than be good, so the saying goes, and never a truer word was spoken as Newcastle opened the game with by far their worst 40 minutes of rugby this season.

At the same time as they were trailing 32-0 after a dismal opening period, Leeds were cruising at Northampton after three first-half tries.

Had the final whistle blown at that point then Newcastle would have tumbled out of the Premiership with little resistance – and who could argue that they would not have deserved it?

A season which has yielded only four wins from their 22 league outings never threatened to add a fifth, with tries from Sam Vesty, Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, Matt Carraro and Matt Banahan securing the four-try bonus point before the interval oranges.

Down and out, the Falcons were left relying on Northampton battling back from 21 points down against the basement side.

It was therefore an eerie atmosphere in the Roman City as Newcastle finally stirred up some second-half spirit, Alex Tait’s dab through the line seeing the winger re-gather to touch down. Fans on both sides were more concerned with events from elsewhere, and all forms of communication were being utilised as news of Northampton’s comeback filtered through.