Stephenson steals it for Falcons

Newcastle Falcons left it late, but eventually got their fourth victory in the Heineken Cup, winning 10-13 over Edinburgh on Saturday.

In a dreadful game, the Falcons had the upper hand for most of the eighty minutes, but were undone by a series of handling errors and some mystifying refereeing decisions from Didier Méné.

The Falcons opened well enough, Tom May, Jamie Noon, and Colin Charvis all made promising runs into Edinburgh territory, but  the support was unable to recycle quickly enough to release the backs into any space the inroads might have created.

Méné had already made some decisions that had flummoxed the Newcastle team by the time he decided to show the yellow card to Marius Hurter for allegedly coming round the side of the ruck.

The penalty was the start of a sustained spell of pressure from the Scots, which culminated in a series of penalties and finally, David Callum was able to dive between the waiting Falcons defenders for the opening score.

Matt Burke replied for the Falcons almost immediately with a huge penalty, but was off-target with two others, leaving his side trailing 7-3 at the break.

Jonny Wilkinson made his long-awaited return in the second half, and it took him only seven minutes to get his trusted left boot into action, but even he could not find the timing to release his backline.

Edinburgh simply kept the ball in the forwards, and the Falcons were getting no change from the beefy Scottish pack.

Neither James Grindal nor Hall Charlton were able to relieve the pressure from scrum-half, and with Méné's whistle playing an increasingly prominent role, the game looked to be descending into a structureless mess.

Former Falcons player Phil Godman slotted a penalty with six minutes left on the clock to put the Gunners further in the lead, but the Falcons upped the tempo again, and finally got their breakthrough with a minute remaining.

Burke provided the initial incision, and Michael Stephenson was the man who finally found the way through the Edinburgh defence. Wilkinson converted, and there was no way back for Edinburgh.

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Try: Callum
Pen: Godman
Con: Paterson

For Newcastle
Try: Stephenson
Con: Wilkinson
Pens: Burke, Wilkinson