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Last Updated: Sunday, 12 February 2006, 17:21 GMT

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London Irish 6-9 Newcastle

MATCH SUMMARY

London Irish (3) 6
Pens: Catt, Laidlaw

Newcastle (6) 9
Pens: Walder (3)

Dave Walder kicked three penalties as Newcastle pushed themselves further away from relegation trouble.

The Falcons fly-half traded a kick with Mike Catt in a tense first half at the Madejski Stadium.

And he landed further penalties in the 45th minute and again 10 minutes from time before Ross Laidlaw set up a tight finish with a 75th-minute effort.

The Exiles mounted a series of late attacks but two missed goal attempts from Laidlaw proved decisive.

Newcastle director of rugby Rob Andrew:
"His tactical kicking is why Dave Walder stayed on for 80 minutes. The only thing he did wrong was miss a couple of kicks at goal.

"Dave's as good a tactical kicker as there is in this country. Today we knew what the weather was going to be like and it was a day for kicking and keeping the ball in the opposition's half.

"He won us the game down here in similar conditions two years ago and ran the game in the same way today."

Irish director of rugby Brian Smith:
"We've hit a bump in the road and today we just weren't good enough.

"We edged them in the scrums but they kicked the leather off the ball and dominated the field position. Credit to Newcastle - they did a real number on us.

"I didn't think we had enough urgency when we were behind. We kept kicking the ball back to them when we needed to be a bit more expansive."

London Irish: Horak; Armitage, Penney, Catt, Tagicakibau; Flutey, Hodgson; Hatley, Coetzee, Rautembach; Casey, Kennedy; Roche, Dawson, Leguizamon.
Replacements: Ojo for Horak (73), Laidlaw for Flutey (32), Collins for Hatley (71), Paice for Coetzee (61), Murphy for Casey (71), Gustard for Dawson (46).
Not Used: Willis.

Newcastle: Burke; May, Shaw, Mayerhofler, Elliot; Walder, Grindal; Ward, Long, Morris; Perry, Parling; Finegan, Harris, Buist.
Replacements: Charlton for Grindal (56), McCarthy for Finegan (50).
Not Used: Paoletti, Thompson, Gross, Woods, J. Wilkinson.

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