Gopperth pulls Falcons back

Newcastle have scored a fourth Guinness Premiership draw of the season after their match against London Irish at Kingston Park ended 12-12 - the visitors therefore still searching for their first win of 2010.

Irish had built a 12-3 lead at half time after back-rowers George Stowers and Steffon Armitage had both profited from excellent work from the Exiles' pack to score from close range.

Jimmy Gopperth was the Falcons' saviour, however, with the fly-half, who had earlier kicked a penalty but missed two attempts, finding his range in the second half with three more penalties to tie the scores.

The result placed a further dent in Irish's play-off hopes and Wasps could potentially overhaul them with victory against Saracens on Sunday.

Crumble

Newcastle made two changes from the side beaten by Northampton, with number eight Peter Browne taking over from the injured Filipo Levi and flanker Will Welch replacing Josh Afu.

Irish, meanwhile, were boosted by returning England internationals Paul Hodgson and Armitage, while there was also a recall for Romanian prop Paulica Ion.

The visitors, who have not won a game in any competition since December 27, were given plenty of early ball after Newcastle failed to gather the kick-off.

But the Falcons defended stoutly and the first scoring chance came their way when they were awarded a penalty - Gopperth's 45-metre effort falling just short.

The New Zealander missed again moments later after the Falcons front row forced their opponents to crumble at a 10th-minute scrum.

A monotonous bout of tactical kicking ensued but the game livened up when Irish centre Seilala Mapusua launched an attack with a beautiful offload that sent Peter Hewat away.

His chip ahead forced scrum-half Micky Young to carry the ball out of play and, from the resulting lineout, the Exiles' pack surged forward to carry Stowers over, although full-back Tom Homer missed a tough conversion.

Irish's second came after Gopperth's failure to deal with a Chris Malone up-and-under handed them territory which they built on with a series of pick-and-drives that ended with Armitage burrowing over.

Homer added the extras to give the Exiles a 12-0 lead.

Needless

Gopperth finally got Newcastle on the board with his third penalty attempt after Irish were caught offside before the break.

The Falcons' front row had been one of the few positives of a poor first half and their ability to force Irish off their own ball resulted in a penalty which Gopperth converted to narrow the gap to six points five minutes into the second half.

The home side continued to press and produced their best passage of attacking play as they troubled the Irish defence for the first time in the match.

Prop Jon Golding in particular produced some powerful carries, the net result being a 54th-minute penalty which Gopperth converted to narrow the gap again.

Irish brought on Ryan Lamb for the ineffective Malone at fly-half but they were now struggling in the face of Newcastle's pack - two line-outs being lost in quick succession before Armitage turned the ball over and they managed to clear their lines.

However, the England forward then gave away a needless penalty on halfway and Gopperth made no mistake to tie the scores with just under 15 minutes to play.

Indeed, Newcastle briefly thought they had won the match when full-back Alex Tait raced over from Young's pass; however, referee Rob Debney rightly ruled the offload to have been forward.