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(Almost) White-washed in white

Second try
By Leipziger
March 3 2007
It looked for a while today as if the Falcons were going to be nilled for only the second time in the Premiership, at the same ground the first occasion took place. As it happened, two second-half tries gave a touch of credibility, but that's not to take away from a good win for London Irish.
The Exiles were already three tries up at the break before a short-lived fightback from Newcastle was ended by two late scores from man of the match Shane Geraghty, to cap a miserable day at the Madejski Stadium for the men in white.

Cory Harris for Ben Woods was the only change to the Geordie lineup from that advertised, but it did little good as home fly-half Geraghty kicked an early penalty before missing two more. Tonga Lea'aetoa was first on the try scoresheet with a converted score, as the Falcons made some headway but poor decision-making amongst the backs, particularly with respect to passing out wide, and a failure by the forwards to impose themselves on Irish meant the home side controlled the game.

After Joe McDessert had been sin-binned for Newcastle, Scotland hooker Robbie Russell and Seilala Mapusua also scored in the first period, putting Irish 24-0 up. Just before the break, the Falcons had their best spell in the half with three penalties kicked for the corner. After Irish pulled down two mauls, the Falcons put everything into the third in the hope of at least forcing a penalty try, however when an attacker peeled off and was tackled he was left isolated and penalised for holding onto the ball.

It was a different Newcastle team however that came out in the second half, and our boys made Irish struggle to impose control the way they had in the first half with some more fluid passing and kicking. It wasn't however until the hour that Toby Flood, whose pacy and intelligent running from centre was one of the few plus points for his side, cut through the green defence to get the Falcons on the board, with Jonny Wilkinson converting. Soon after, the comeback looked a slight possibility when replacement Ollie Phillips scored an unconverted try.

It wasn't to be however, and Geraghty took advantage of slack defending to score twice under the posts in the dying minutes, when the Falcons, now without Wilkinson and Matthew Burke, converting both to seal the Exiles' 38-12 victory.

Post-match entertainment was provided by an emergency evacuation exercise in the South Stand. We'd probably have got out quicker if they'd let us out the proper way, but of course Health and Safety moves in mysterious ways.

Although Worcester beat Bath to leave us but nine points above bottom, we probably shouldn't be panicking at the moment. To para-quote Tracywilko after the game though, the win over Wasps a week ago seems all the more vital today.

Photos from Tracywilko and Sam the Minx hopefully to come, and many thanks to Sam for thinking up the headline.

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