Newcastle 13-30 Leicester: Tigers see off spirited Falcons at Kingston Park

Jonny May continued his impressive form with a try against the Falcons

Three second-half penalties from George Ford and a late Jonny May try finally ended Newcastle's resistance as Leicester beat the Falcons 30-13 at Kingston Park.

Ford clocked up 15 points, converting all three of the Tigers tries by Telusa Veainu, Ben Youngs and May, and also kicked three penalties after the Falcons had battled their way back into the game.

The Tigers looked set for a comfortable half-time lead after scoring two tries in the space of seven minutes, with Veainu scoring a cracker and making it easy for Youngs to add the second, and Ford converting both.

But Newcastle hit back right on half-time through a Vereniki Goneva try, and with Toby Flood converting and kicking a penalty it was 14-10 at the break. The visitors then put on the squeeze in the second half to claim a vital away victory.

Both sides showed early intent with Flood kicking a penalty to the corner to set up an attacking lineout and Ford doing the same for Leicester.

Leicester's Telusa Veainu is congratulated after scoring the opening try

But Newcastle made a mess of their lineout while the Tigers ruthlessly did not, with slick passing setting up Veainu to score a quite breathtaking try standing up a bewildered Falcons defence with a weaving run.

Ford converted and despite a 14th-minute penalty from Flood the Falcons slipped further behind when Veainu stepped inside the tackle again and popped the ball up for the simplest of tries for Ben Youngs, converted by Ford in the 18th minute and the Tigers led 14-3.

Newcastle were struggling with the pace of the game but their real problem was the number of high-tackle penalties they were conceding while their first-up tackling was also below par.

The Tigers were clearly in control with Newcastle unable to retain the ball for any length of time, but they finally got it right with less than a minute to go until half-time as the ball was moved along the line and back inside for Mathew Tait to swap passes with Goneva and the big winger scored easily, Flood converting for 14-10 at the break.

A Flood penalty two minutes into the second half made it 14-13 and it was anybody's game with a ferocious battle raging over the ball at the breakdown.

It was a simple offside behind the scrum that led to a 50-metre penalty from Ford to edge the Tigers 17-13 ahead in the 52nd minute, and the England fly-half was on target again in 65th and 69th minutes when Newcastle folded at the scrum and transgressed with another high tackle.

At 23-13 it looked enough for a Tigers victory and May charged over in the corner with Ford converting to wrap it up.