Exiles take the points at Kingston Park
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:27
A dominating second half performance helped secure a comprehensive 24-8 win for London Irish as they traveled to Kingston Park on Sunday to face the Newcastle Falcons.
A tight first half display, which ended just 10-5 to the visitors, set up an exciting second forty which was highlighted by tries from flanks Declan Danaher and Steffon Armitage.
The home side started the match in the right fashion and were the first on the scoreboard with a try after just five minutes. No.7 Brent Wilson went over for the home side but young Rory Clegg’s missed conversion attempt mean the score was just 5-0.
The Irish did not take long to respond and after 11 minutes Richard Thorpe went over for the visitors and Peter Hewat’s conversion gave them the slender lead.
Opportunities for points were few and far between for the remainder of the half and the next score only came on the stroke of half time as Hewat sent over his one and only penalty of the day.
Clegg got the scoring started in the second half with a penalty in the 48th minute but that was to be the last bit of good news from the Falcon’s faithful on the day. With just under an hour of the fixture gone Armitage, on as a replacement for Chris Hala’ufia, went over for his try.
The conversion gave Toby Booth’s men a nine point lead and the game looked to be slipping away from Phil Dowson and his men.
Danaher wrapped up the points with 14 minutes left on the clock. The fourth try on the day by a loose forward, his effort was also converted by Hewat and the Irish marched comfortably on to their fourth win of the season and took their total points tally up to 20 for the new season.
The Scorers
For Newcastle
Tries: Wilson
Pen: Clegg
London Irish
Tries: Thorpe, Armitage, Danaher
Pen:
Hewat
Con: Hewat 3
Newcastle Falcons: 15 Steve Jones, 14 Danny Williams, 13 Tom May, 12 Tane Tu'ipulotu, 11 John Rudd, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Hall Charlton, 8 Phil Dowson (captain), 7 Brent Wilson, 6 Ed Williamson, 5 Mark Sorenson, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Micky Ward, 2 Andy Long, 1 Jon Golding
Replacements: 16 Rob Vickers, 17 David Wilson, 18 Ross Beattie, 19 Geoff Parling, 20 Tom Dillon, 21 James Grindal, 22 Spencer Davey.
London Irsh: 15 Peter Hewat, 14. Topsy Ojo, 13. Elvis Seveali’I, 12 Shane Geraghty, 11 James Bailey, 10 Mike Catt (captain), 9 Paul Hodgson, 8.Chris Hala’Ufia, 7 Declan Danaher, 6 Richard Thorpe, 5 Kieran Roche, 4 Nick Kennedy, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 2. David Paice, 1 Clarke Dermody
Replacements: 16. Tonga Lea’aetoa, 17 James Buckland, 18 Alex Corbisiero, 19 Gary Johnson, 20 Steffon Armitage, 21 Alfredo Lalanne, 22Charlie
Gower
Referee: Rob Debney
Touch judges: Alan Hughes, Martin Buck
TMO: Andy Turner
