Newcastle 24 Leicester 16: Burke condemns Tigers to more misery

Leicester stumbled to yet another away defeat. Pat Howard's side have won only once on the road since September in the Premiership. At Kingston Park last night, they were undone by the Newcastle pack and the goal-kicking of Matt Burke. Newcastle's win takes them up to sixth.

The Leicester pack had a point to prove, having been dismantled by Gloucester at Kingsholmtwo weeks ago. With the Newcastle forwards going as well as they have for some seasons, this was seen as the pivotal aspect of a match, which Leicester needed to win to reclaim third place from the West Country giants.

The Falcons had Leicester backpedalling. The Tigers conceded three penalties, two of which were in Burke's range. In contrast to his display last Sunday, when he missed five penalties from eight attempts, the Australian was on target. He found it again, after Ian Humphreys had pulled one back for the Tigers, and then the Leicester outside-half kicked another to make it 9-6 after 15 minutes.

A hack-on by Anthony Elliott opened up the Tigers' defence, but the Falcons were unable to make the most of Elliott's quick thinking, despite winning another penalty, though spoiling the chance by making a mess of a line-out drive. The Falcons conceded another penalty, which Humphreys stroked over to level the scores. Sam Vesty would have scored the opening try, but Leicester were hauled back for a high tackle by Alesana Tuilagi on Tom May, and it was left to Burke, with two more penalties, to take the Falcons in for their Bovril 15-9 to the good.

Leicester's response was begun by Humphreys, whose penalty flew past the right upright, before Burke struck again. Though soon after Burke, too, was wide. Austin Healey then gave Leicester a glimmer of hope when he fed Henry Tuilagi for a smart try. Sam Vesty converted to make it 21-16, after May had dropped a goal. Inevitably, it was Burke with his seventh penalty, who sealed it for the Falcons.

Afterwards, Howard, the Tigers coach, could not hide his frustration at the decision by the referee Ashley Rowden to disallow an apparently legitimate try by the full-back Vesty. "I was pretty close to the incident and I saw Sam score, but I'll toe the party line," he said.

Newcastle: Penalties Burke 7; Drop goal . Leicester: Try H Tuilagi; Conversion Vesty; Penalties Humphreys 3.

Newcastle: M Burke (capt); T May, M Tait, M Mayerhofler, A Elliott; T Flood, J Grindal (H Charlton, 64); M Ward (J Williams, 72), A Long (M Thompson, 72), R Morris, A Perry, G Parling (S Grimes, 69), O Finegan (M McCarthy, 64), B Woods, A Buist.

Leicester: S Vesty; A Tuilagi, L Lloyd, O Smith (A Dodge, 58), T Varndell; I Humphreys (S Bemand, 64), A Healey (capt); G Rowntree, J Buckland (E Taukafa, 59), D Morris (M Holford, 64), L Deacon, B Kay (L Cullen, 55), L Abraham, S Jennings, W Johnson (H Tuilagi, 64).

Referee: A Rowden (Berkshire).

* Leeds Tykes continued their impressive home form with 21-15 victory against Worcester. First-half tries from Chris Bell and Roland de Marigny laid the platform for a deserved victory for the Premiership's bottom club.