NEWCASTLE are hoping Jonny Wilkinson will be fit to return at least a week before the April 17 Powergen Cup final against Sale, which they reached almost without breaking sweat yesterday.

The Falcons have a friendly against Global Chiefs on April 10, which would be an ideal opportunity for Wilkinson to make his comeback after his shoulder operation.

The match has been arranged to raise funds for the family of Soa Otuvaka, the Tongan forward who is suffering from a brain tumour, and it will feature a number of top Pacific Islanders.

Wilkinson is said to be fitter than he has ever been, and apart from the usual goal-kicking he has been throwing out passes by the thousand in practice with fitness coach Steve Black.

All he lacks is contact work, and the Falcons are still not sure when he will be ready for that.

Despite yesterday's highly flattering scoreline, they will want him in their final line-up as the first 62 minutes against their Division One visitors showed they are still not firing on all cylinders.

They had scored only one try until that point, but then added six more, including three in injury time as the Bees ran out of steam and stopped tackling.

Never can a side have had such a comfortable passage to Twickenham as the Falcons, but they will need to be at their best to win the all-Northern final.

They were due at Sale for a Premiership match on the Friday night before the cup final, but that match will now be rearranged.

Wilkinson's deputy, David Walder, continued to reflect the team's efforts by blowing hot and cold. He scored two tries and added four penalties and three conversions, but he missed a straightforward penalty during a 20-minute barren spell in the middle of the first half.

He compounded the error by kicking straight into touch when the ball was passed to him on the restart, and the errors continued as Newcastle lost a scrum against the head then two players ran into each other.

But there was never any question that they were the better side as it was impossible to imagine how the Bees had scored the 28 points they needed for their shock win against Wasps in the quarter-final.

The Falcons were guilty of too many knock-ons, but the Bees were even more culpable and never mounted an attack worthy of the name.

They played with great spirit and tackled their hearts out until the game was beyond them, and at 16-3 down at half-time after facing the wind they might have felt they had a chance.

But Walder kicked his fourth penalty two minutes after the restart and the Bees simply couldn't win enough quality ball to make any impact.

Centre Jamie Noon was Newcastle's most dangerous attacker in the first half, when prop Ian Peel also caught the eye as a ball-carrying forward, occasionally appearing at centre.

As the game wore on, the pace of recalled winger Michael Stephenson was increasingly prominent, while back row men Hugh Vyvyan and Jon Dunbar made deep inroads into a flagging defence.

It took Newcastle until the 32nd minute to score a try, when Noon slipped two tackles in midfield then Garath Archer and Warren Britz drove for the line before the ball came back for centre Mark Mayerhofler to score on the left.

Another Noon break ended with hooker Nick Makin being tackled into the corner flag when Newcastle should have scored, but Walder's third penalty made it 16-0 after 40 minutes.

The Bees immediately gave themselves hope when they won good line-out ball and fly half Mark Woodrow chipped to the 22, where Newcastle killed the ball and Woodrow landed the penalty.

Walder's penalty from the 22 soon after the break settled any nerves the 5,895 crowd might have felt and a try looked inevitable when the home forwards drove over the line, but referee Chris White ruled that the ball had not been grounded.

The second try was a long time coming and resulted from forward pressure close to the line, allowing Mayerhofler to send Walder over.

The Bees resisted for a further 13 minutes before allowing the sluice gates to open with five tries in the last 12 minutes, including seven minutes of injury time.

Stephenson shot through a gap from 15 metres to score and the best try came from the restart as Newcastle ran it straight back and lock Stuart Grimes finished the excellent move.

Walder skipped past a feeble tackle for his second try, Mayerhofler also grabbed a second and replacement Ben Gollings completed the rout.

Director of Rugby Rob Andrew said: ''It will be a great final - a fantastic day. Both ourselves and Sale are attack-minded.

''It will probably be five tries each and a drop goal competition at the end with Jonny Wilkinson and Charlie Hodgson coming off the bench to shoot it out!

''Our thinking is that the final is within range for Jonny to play but it's far too early to say for sure.

''Mark Andrews is recovering from a knee operation and we expect him to play before the final.

"It will be great to go back to Twickenham. Semi-finals are always nerve-racking and we were under a lot of pressure because the only thing we could do other than win well was to mess it up.

"I thought we were extremely professional and put some icing on the cake at the end.