Jonny injured in defeat
Newcastle Falcons 8 London Irish 13
NEWCASTLE played down fears
that England fly-half Jonny
Wilkinson will be sidelined for
any length of time after he suffered
another worrying neck injury
at Kingston Park yesterday.
Wilkinson needed prolonged
treatment in the second half of
Newcastle's 13-8 defeat by London
Irish in the Guinness Premiership.
Although he played
on, he eventually went off with
12 minutes to go.
Falcons boss Steve Bates said
he expects Wilkinson to be fit to
face Leicester next week, along
with England duo Toby Flood
and Jamie Noon, who missed
yesterday's game with ankle injuries.
Jonny got a bang on the head
and felt a bit of a stinger down
one arm,'' said Bates.
He seemed fine at the end of
the game, but he was a little bit
woozy and the doctor has been
having a look at him. We think
he'll be fine.''
Newcastle may have reached
the semi-finals of the European
Challenge Cup, but they have yet
to win in the league under Bates,
although they are safe from relegation
after Leeds' defeat by
Harlequins yesterday.
That's some consolation,''
said Bates. But it was a pretty
poor game today and we were
very disappointing in the first
half and we looked very tired.
It's a case of two steps forward
and one back. We looked a
little bit panicky and not comfortable
on the ball.
"While we may have never
been out of it if you looked at the
scoreboard that doesn't excuse
the level of performance.''
Heineken Cup semi-finalists
London Irish were also disappointed
not to have taken five
points from the game.
We're satisfied with the win
but not the performance,'' said
Brian Smith, London Irish's director
of rugby.
Newcastle gave the ball away
in the first minute and did not
see it again for much of the first
half as London Irish launched
attack after attack.
The visitors had little to show
for all their possession apart
from a Peter Hewat penalty in
the sixth minute and Declan
Danaher's 25th-minute try.
Mathew Tait's surging run out
of defence sparked Newcastle's
best spell of the half, but Irish
went further in front after 43
minutes.
Newcastle failed to secure the
ball from the restart and Shane
Geraghty made the Falcons pay
with a long pass that found
Richard Thorpe and he put
Danaher in at the corner for his
second try.
The Falcons brought on Carl
Hayman and Matt Thompson to
try and bring some much needed
power into their pack and finally
got on the board with a
48th-minute Wilkinson penalty.
That was Wilkinson's last effective
contribution.
Newcastle did manage a score
in the dying seconds when Tom
May took a quick penalty and
John Rudd surged away. Rudd
passed inside for Tim Visser to
score.
9:47am Monday 14th April 2008
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