Newcastle Falcons 29, Newport 24

JONNY Wilkinson is likely to be given another week to recover from his ankle injury.

After the England fly half missed Saturday's 29-24 win against Newport at Kingston Park in the EDF Energy Cup, Director of Rugby John Fletcher said: Next week is probably a week to soon for Jonny."

Newcastle take on Centransa El Salvador in the European Challenge Cup in Spain next Saturday and Fletcher added: Jonny will be on the plane but we probably won't risk him.

However, we do expect Jamie Noon, Phil Dowson and Ben Woods to be in the mix and we expect Toby Flood to have recovered from his back spasm.

"We took him off in the second half. He could have played on but it would have been fair to him to keep him when he was struggling.'' Newcastle held on after leading 17-0 and Fletcher added: We made some good chances but our execution was poor and you really should kill games off like that when you are leading 17-0 and they have two men in the sin bin.

But you have to give Newport credit - they would not give up and they are a good side with a huge amount of spirit.'' Newport went close to scoring in the dying seconds but they did not help themselves when forwards Joe Bearman and Andrew Hall were both shown a yellow card in the first half, both times for preventing release.

But they did score four tries - as did Newcastle - to pick up two bonus points, the second one for losing by fewer than seven points.

Newport head coach Paul Turner said: We got back into a winning position but made too many errors.

We did prove we can play a bit, but you cannot give a quality player like Toby Flood that sort of room and we had two guys in the sin bin and you can't do that.

It's tough, the game was in the balance and I'm disappointed.

We'll have to look at the video regarding the yellow cards before making any comment.

We made mistakes and that puts us on the back foot and I was furious at half-time, but it's very difficult being a referee.

We're pleased we did contribute to very good game and I'm sure the crowd enjoyed it."

With World Cup duo Flood and Mathew Tait pulling the strings, the Falcons surged into a 17-0 lead.

Aled Thomas's ninth-minute penalty from 40 metres fell short in an opening spell notable for some scrappy handling and referee James Jones' frequent whistle before John Rudd's surging run and chip ahead had Newport scrambling back.

Flood and Ollie Phillips backed up a Lee Dickson break but the move broke down when big lock Andy Perry was forced into touch on the Newport 22, but the pressure was building and Flood kicked a 17th-minute penalty It was Flood who fastened on to Joe McDonell's offload and a delightful backhand pass set up Steve Jones for a 19th-minute try, which Flood also converted.

When Bearman was sin-binned for preventing release, Newcastle immediately scored with a rolling maul from the penalty and Flood again converted from wide out.

Newport were in disarray and under severe pressure when Hall joined Bearman in the bin after a thumping run by Falcons prop David Wilson.

But then with Newcastle pressing hard, Martyn Thomas intercepted Flood's long pass and raced 70 metres for a try under the posts.

The lifeline was stretched as early as the third minute of the second half with Flood rifling a crossfield kick for Ollie Phillips to break through Thomas's despairing tackle and score.

Newport should have scored when Rhodri Gomer-Davies broke clear down the left but he lost the ball just short of the line when Tom May hit him with a big tackle.

The Dragons did score when Rhys Thomas drove over from close range to make it 22-12 in the 51st minute.

Tait became the third player in the sin bin for preventing release in the 54th minute with Newcastle under real pressure from a rejuvenated Newport side.

It came as no surprise when Andy Williams darted through after Newcastle made a mess of their own line-out.

It brought Newport back to within three points at 22-19 but with ten minutes left Rudd surged from deep to collect Steve Jones' pop pass for a great bonus point try.

Back came Newport with the Falcons defence in shreds and Thomas crashed over for his second try.

Crucially, Aled Thomas missed the conversion and from that point Newcastle were happy to run the clock down, but they were forced to defend desperately in the closing seconds with Newport on the attack.